Fly Free
by phoenixyfriend
Summary: Robin knows what it is like to live a hard life. When she finds that Kuma has sent her to a town called Konoha, she becomes an unofficial therapist for the town's troubled children. After all, only a broken bird can teach these children how to fly again.
1. Crater

Naruto ran. He was only eleven, so he was really doing rather well, all things considered, but he still wasn't good enough at stealth to hide from _everyone_.

So many villagers were coming after him. None of this was his fault! Why were there so many people trying to kill him? Sure, most of them were drunk, and Ayame-neechan had explained that people did stupid stuff and acted a lot dumber than usual when they were drunk, but that still didn't explain it!

"Demon! You won't get away this time!" And _why_ did they always call him that?!

Naruto took a wrong turn and ran into an alleyway; it had a dead end. Cursing himself for forgetting where he was, he turned around. He'd seen some shinobi get up walls this high before, but he couldn't do that yet. He brought his fists up, hoping to be able to fight off his attackers, when an odd blur caught the corner of his eye. He turned, and when he saw that there actually _was_ something there, he pointed and shouted.

"Look!" His finger went wild, and most of them ignored him, but one or two did deign to send a glance.

"What is that?" A random villager wondered. Naruto waited until all of the villagers were looking away, then weaved through them and slipped out of the alleyway. Several seconds after he was out of sight of the mouth of the alley, he heard outraged, drunken cries behind him. He turned towards where the blur, for lack of a better term, had been headed.

_Well, might as well go see what it was that saved me._

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto walked over to a crater and coughed a bit on the dust that was floating around it. He put an arm over his mouth and walked closer.

_Weird shape…_ it looked like a paw.

He edged a bit closer, and peered in. There lay an unconscious woman, who was covered in scrapes and bruises. Naruto stared for a few seconds, coughed a bit more, and then eased himself over the edge of the hole and stumbled down the short incline over to the woman.

"Ma'am?" He poked her shoulder. He had to be as polite as possible. What if she ended up hating him like the villagers?

He poked her again, but nothing happened. He looked closer at her. She was pretty, he guessed, but she was old. Well, old to him. She looked nowhere near as old as Jii-san, or even Teuchi-san from the ramen shop, but she was a lot older than Naruto, and Ayame-nee-chan, and probably older than Iruka-sensei too. He looked at her body and frowned at the rips in her clothes. He knew it cost a lot to fix clothes or buy new ones. Then he turned away, blushing. Her shirt was pretty revealing, though it still covered up what it should, and her chest was even bigger than his Oiroke no Jutsu's! He thought to himself for a few moments, wondering what the best way to do this would be, and then just shrugged and walked back to her head. He knelt down, picked up her arms, and started dragging her to the hospital.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto frowned. This woman was _heavy_ for a kid like him. She was skinny, but she was really tall too. He reached up to the hospital doors and knocked. The door opened and a medic looked out at him. A quick flash of distaste crossed his face, but he schooled it behind a blank expression.

Naruto appreciated the attempt.

"What can I help you with?" His voice held barely any emotion, but Naruto ignored that. He pointed behind him.

"A woman fell out of the sky and landed in this crater shaped like a big paw and now she won't wake up." Naruto rattled off, playing off the idiot role.

The medic blinked.

"And she doesn't look like a ninja, so I brought her here." Naruto added. The medic stared at him, then pushed his way out to the unconscious woman and checked her pulse. The medic picked her up.

"Come inside, stay in the waiting room, and don't touch anything or ask questions." The medic ordered as he rushed towards the doors that led to the rest of the hospital.

Naruto gave him one of his patented grins. "Yes, sir!"

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto kicked his legs back and forth under the chair. He was still pretty short, so his legs didn't quite reach the ground, but he wasn't allowed to touch anything, so he wasn't going to leave the chair. If he did, he might get in trouble. If he pulled a random prank, he was fine with the consequences, but right now, it wasn't a prank, and he didn't want to get in trouble.

Naruto looked up as the door opened, but didn't get up, as much as he wanted to. "Jii-san!"

The Hokage smiled down at him. "Hello, Naruto. I heard you were the one that found this woman in the forest?"

Naruto nodded. "Uh-huh. She was in this crater a couple hundred meters away from the village. She was in one of the training grounds."

"I already sent someone to investigate. Would you like to come with me to see her?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. She was probably the blur that got those drunken villagers distracted so that I could run away, so I want to thank her." Naruto didn't notice the Sarutobi's flinch.

"Well, then, come along." The Hokage walked through the hospital door and Naruto walked along beside him, chattering as he went.

"And then that stupid Sasuke got five out of five with the shuriken, but I told him that I would-" He was cut off by the medic.

"She's in this room. Hokage-sama, would you like to go in alone or will the boy come too?" The medic's face was carefully empty of emotion.

The Hokage smiled genially at him. "I'll take Naruto-kun in with me for now, and if sensitive information comes up, I'll have him stand outside the door."

The medic nodded. "As you wish." He opened the door, motioned them in, and then left as the door closed behind them.

Naruto hopped over to the bed and stood next to the woman's head. He tilted his head to the side. "She doesn't look too hurt."

"Yes, the report I got mentioned that she seemed to be healing remarkably quickly."

"I can hear you, you know."

Naruto and the Hokage froze.

_Impressive, that she managed to hide the fact that she was awake_…

"Are you feeling well?" The Hokage asked. Naruto was sitting on one of the chairs now, and the Hokage made his way to the other. The woman didn't make any move, though her eyes opened, tracking them both as they moved through the room.

"As well as can be expected after what happened. If I may ask, where am I?" She had a small smile on her face, but Sarutobi didn't really feel that it was genuine.

"You're in Konohagakure!" Naruto threw his hands in the air. "The greatest village in the Elemental Nations! And I'm gonna be Hokage one day, dattebayo!" He grinned widely at her, and Sarutobi noticed some genuine amusement come into her expression.

"Fufufufu." She chuckled. "Is that so? I'll have to ask you to forgive me: I don't know of the Elemental Nations, or any of what you just said. Last I knew, I was on the Sabaody Archipelago."

Naruto and the Hokage stared at her.

"You mean to say… you are from outside the Elemental Nations?" Sarutobi asked.

"If you could show me a map?" the woman asked.

"Later, Ms…" The Hokage trailed off, leaving it an open question.

"Nico Robin." She held out a hand from her position on the bed.

"Sarutobi Hiruzen, current Hokage. And the orange blur next to you is Uzumaki Naruto."

"And I'm gonna be the next Hokage, dattebayo!" He pointed at her, as if daring her to doubt him.

She chuckled again, hand delicately held up to her mouth. "So that is your dream, is it? But I am still going to have to ask, what is the Hokage?"

Naruto stared at her, eyes wide and mouth open. Sarutobi chuckled at his expression, and then turned to speak with Ms. Nico again. "Konohagakure is run as a military dictatorship, and the Hokage is the highest position in the government. I am the current Hokage."

She seemed to mull over the information presented to her. "What sort of military do you have? Are you affiliated with the World Government?"

"Shinobi. Traditionally, the Hokage is the most powerful of the shinobi, or kunoichi, if that is the case, though there are certain other considerations which must be taken into account as well. I know of no World Government, so no to that question."

Robin frowned. "Shinobi? I'm afraid I've never heard the term before. Though if you've never heard of the World Government…" She trailed off, frowning.

"Ne, what's the World Government?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, ask later. Right now, I think she would like to know what a ninja is." Sarutobi suggested, and smiled as Naruto launched into a detailed, but hardly comprehensible explanation of what ninja were. Robin smiled and nodded along, and Sarutobi felt as if she actually did understand the garbled explanation that Naruto had given her.

Robin smiled at Naruto. "You remind me of my captain."

"Captain?" The Hokage latched onto the information.

"Of the Thousand Sunny, now that the Going Merry is no more." She 'explained,' the sparkle in her eye showing that she did indeed understand just how little she'd actually told them.

"Ah… And what would those be?" Sarutobi asked her to elaborate, somewhat irritated.

She smiled. "Our ships."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow, though inside he was sighing heavily at how he was being led around by the nose. "So you lived on a ship. What did you do? Fishing, merchant work, cruise lines…?"

"Piracy." She stated, once again with a simple, benevolent smile; you could almost see a cute little heart in the middle of the sentence. Naruto and the Hokage stared at her for a few seconds.

"You're a pirate?!" Naruto shouted, staring at her, horrified. This pretty lady was a pirate?

Robin sat up in the bed and propped herself back up onto her pillow. "There are two kinds of pirates in the world, Uzumaki-kun."

Naruto frowned, still looking at her warily. "Huh?"

Robin picked up a drawing pad and pen that had been left on the bedside table. She looked at the pen a bit oddly for a few seconds, and then put her pen to the paper. Quickly, she sketched out a few little pirate flags. "There are the Peace Mains, and the Morganeers. Tell me, Uzumaki-kun, when you think of pirates, what do you think of?"

Naruto pursed his lips, thinking. His face still scrunched up in thought, he answered the question while trying not to insult the woman in front of him. "Pirates are…" He trailed off.

"Do not worry about insulting me. As I said before, there are two types of pirates, and I am most likely the other."

Naruto sighed and said what he'd been thinking. "Pirates steal things from innocent people on the ocean and set fire to their ships. They get drunk a lot and they don't fight like ninja. They run from the law, and sometimes they hurt port towns and pillage them or whatever." His face scrunched up. "And they're hairy."

Robin chuckled, and Sarutobi found himself joining in. "That's an interesting description. It's also quite similar to the description that the World Government prefers to use for all pirates. That is, for the most part, a description of the Morganeers, the truly villainous, though to the Marines, just flying the Jolly Roger is enough to allow them to arrest you. They are also the larger group of the two kinds." Robin showed him the paper and pointed to several flags. "The Buggy Pirates, the Kuroneko pirates, the Don Krieg Armada, the Arlong Pirates," Her finger twitched, "And once in the Grand Line, the BlackBeard Pirates, certain factions of Baroque Works," her voice slowed down a bit as she spoke on them, then sped back up. "God's Priests, if those men were to be considered pirates, they were more of an over-lording faction within Skypeia" She murmured, "The Silver Fox Pirates, the zombie crew of Thriller Bark,"

Naruto's eyes widened. Zombies?

"Shiki's group, and several crews that we met at Sabaody, like the some of the other Supernovas."

Sarutobi looked at the pirate flags she'd drawn. "You seem to have met quite a few."

Robin smiled at him, though the intent behind the disarming smile was a bit closer to that of a smirk. "I have not met them all, Hokage-san."

"Ne, ne. Nico-san, you gotta call him Hokage-sama. I get to call him Jii-san, but everybody else has gotta call him Hokage-sama." Naruto poked her in the arm. Robin smiled again, amused.

"And if I could prove that I'm the most dangerous person in the room?" She asked.

Naruto folded his arms. "Nuh-uh. You can't be the most dangerous."

Sarutobi coughed. "If we could get back to your explanation?"

Robin nodded. "The other kind is Peace Mains. Crews that are not on the side of the law, and do not care if they break the law, but do not partake in the evils of the Morganeers. These crews are closer to being adventurers and explorers than murderers and pillagers. Crews that want nothing more than to have fun on the sea without interference from the World Government, and only fight the Marines when attacked, or fighting Morganeers when they don't agree with the actions. Tell me, do the Peace Mains seem all that bad to you?"

Naruto shook his head slowly.

"I thought not. My crew is one of the Peace Mains. The Straw Hat Pirates." She pointed fondly at the largest of the pirate flags she'd drawn, the one with the, would you look at that, straw hat. "Some others that we've met would be the Rumbar Pirates, the Rolling Pirates, not many others, but still fun-loving, still wonderfully childish, immature, powerful but kind." She ran a hand over the picture in the center. "And now I find myself worrying for them."

"Why are you worried?" The Hokage asked.

Robin shook her head sadly. "I don't know what happened to them. I was one of the last to disappear, if what happened to the others is the same as what happened to me. Seeing as I am no longer at Sabaody, I can't say what happened, and I can't say where the others are. They could be anywhere." She looked out the window, not smiling, not frowning; she was just blank.

"I'm sure they'll be okay." Naruto said, and put a hand on her elbow. Robin reached over absentmindedly and pet his head.

Naruto grabbed at his head. "Hey!"

Robin chuckled again. "Sorry. You just seemed to be acting like one of my crewmembers for a second, and that's how we cheer him up."

Naruto looked at her for a second, and then looked down shyly. "Ano… Thank you, Nico-san. Because you showed up, the villagers stopped chasing me, and I managed to get away." He looked up at her sharp gasp.

"Why… why were these villagers chasing you?" Her voice was strained. Unbeknownst to Naruto, the Hokage was acting somewhat uncomfortable to the side, a guilty look on his face.

"Ano… I don't know." Naruto shrugged. "But I found you after I ran away and brought you here to the hospital, so I guess we saved each other!" He looked up at her hopefully.

She smiled softly at him. "I suppose we did."

Sarutobi coughed. "Naruto-kun, if you could go outside for a minute? I'd like to speak with Miss Nico here about some classified information."

Naruto hesitated, but then nodded. "I'll be right outside the door, jii-san."

Robin waited until the door closed. "Why?"

Sarutobi sighed, and it seemed as if a great weight had settled on his shoulders. "It's an S-ranked secret, I'm afraid. I don't know enough about you to tell you."

Robin's eyes narrowed. "I know what it is like to be a child and be attacked by the people of your hometown for irrational reasons. I think that knowing about what happened to him would be beneficial."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "Beneficial to whom?"

Robin's arms stiffened at her sides, and Sarutobi felt her chakra twist, though it didn't feel as though she'd actually used any. Then he felt a pair of hands cupping his chin, and realized that the woman in front of him was the cause.

"I was not bluffing when I said that I was dangerous." Her voice was cold. "I am a Straw-Hat first and foremost, and I pride myself as an archeologist, but I spent many years as an assassin and a spy, and have been on the run from the wrath of the entire world since I was eight. I have managed to avoid government capture for twenty years, and I feel quite certain that I would be able to escape this hospital quite easily."

"So, it would be beneficial to the boy to know why, even if the reason is completely illogical; it would be beneficial to you, because I won't break your neck, or even," Sarutobi felt her chakra twist again, and an odd sensation came from behind him. "Your spine; and it would be beneficial to me, because I intend to protect this boy while I am here, and would like to have a solid argument to refute their claims."

Sarutobi stared at her for a few seconds, and then chuckled sourly. "I don't know what sort of technique you used, but I will say that few people are capable of threatening me quite as easily as you seem to assume you have. If I could see a better example of this technique of yours?" Robin's eyes narrowed further.

"Take a look at your chest." She said, her voice still cold. Sarutobi looked down, as if to humor her, and then froze as he saw a hand coming from his chest.

"Doce Fleur." Robin said, and a dozen hands sprouted out of the walls, bed, and Robin's own shoulders.

Sarutobi stared. "…An interesting jutsu. Though I can't see exactly how it is possible."

Robin's glared at him. "The result of eating a cursed fruit, and it gave me this power, at a price. Part of that price was the hatred of my town, which called me a demon and a monster, and my only friends constituted of the archeologists at the Tree of Knowledge and, for a short while before he died in the Buster Call, a giant that had washed up on the beach. Even my uncle was indifferent to me, while my aunt and cousin treated me like a servant. My father dead, my mother on an archeological expedition, and then the Buster Call… I was forced to grow up very early in life." Her eyes had a slightly faraway look in them, though she was still completely alert.

Her eyes darted back to Sarutobi, and the hands around him tightened slightly. "I have told you the basics of the beginning of my story, now tell me the child's."

Sarutobi sighed. "I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you what was told to the villagers. But first, you'll have to remove your… appendages, or I may be forced to arrest you on account of attacking the Hokage." The arms vanished in a few bursts of sakura petals.

"Loath as I am to admit, that was probably the closest I've come to a true loss in several years. While I am sure I could have gotten out of it, it would have been very difficult." Sarutobi smiled gently at the woman. She smiled back, eyes shut, and her words were like poisoned honey.

"I would appreciate an explanation, Hokage-sama." Sarutobi sighed. This woman, strange as she was, was probably the most dangerous non-shinobi he'd met in a long time. So after putting up a privacy seal, he told her the public story, told her about the Kyuubi and the sealing, told her about the Law and about Naruto's treatment.

"So the drunken mobs are _definitely_ a rare occurrence?" Robin asked.

Sarutobi nodded fervently. "Of course. If they occurred more than they do, I would have ANBU guarding him like I did when he was younger. Now he's had shinobi training, and since the shinobi are better at following orders than civilians, only civilians come after him without reason, and he can usually run away easily. His stealth is at the level of a high genin, at least, though I doubt that's from hiding from civilians so much as it is hiding from his teachers and victims when he pulls pranks."

Robin frowned, and shoved the topic back in the direction it had been going earlier. "You wish not to tell him. That is… unadvisable."

Sarutobi sighed. "I understand where you're coming from, I really do, but I haven't told him for years, and if I suddenly told him now, he'd lose all trust in me, and probably in everyone else."

Robin crossed her arms. "So you're just never going to tell him? I've seen people that can take in information that big without blinking an eye, even disregard it as unimportant, but Uzumaki-san does not seem like that sort of person."

Sarutobi smiled sadly at her. "Actually, I was planning on telling him when he made genin, which is most likely going to happen in about four months."

Robin nodded slowly. "I can… accept that as somewhat reasonable."

"Now," Sarutobi leaned back in his chair. "What are you going to do? How are you going to get back home?"

Robin shook her head. "I don't know if I can. First, you'll have to tell me what you can about where we are right now. Simply telling me which of the Blues we are in would suffice." _Though whether or not the Blues even exist here is debatable. Perhaps it is simply their knowledge? They seemed surprised that I was not from these 'Elemental Countries,' so perhaps they simply have little information on the world beyond their collective borders? But they don't seem to know about Devil Fruits either, and one would have washed up on their shores at some point in the past._

"Blues?" Sarutobi asked.

Robin's face was blank.

… _This is not good…_

"Tell me," Robin started hesitantly. "Has anyone, to your knowledge, ever developed strange powers after eating a colorful fruit covered in swirls? One that tastes especially horrible?"

Sarutobi stared at her. "No, I do not believe so. Several of our ninja do have strange powers, as you put it, but those are genetic."

Robin frowned. "From what Uzumaki-san told me, I believe I already know the answer, but do you ever use guns?" _I hope I'm not right._

"I apologize, Nico-san. I have never heard of these 'guns.'"

_I was right._

"To think…" Robin started off, somewhat dazed, "To think that a paramecia user would have the power to cause one to transcend worlds as easily as this…"

The Hokage stared at her. Transcend worlds? Did she mean she was from a different dimension? That would be impossible; something only possible in the children's stories he gave to his grandson. He noticed that her hands were shaking and decided to bring Naruto back. She'd seemed to enjoy his presence, so perhaps his presence would help her calm down.

Sarutobi broke the privacy seal on the room, and called out, "Naruto, you can come in now!"

"Okay, jii-san!" Naruto rushed in and jumped back onto the chair next to Robin. "Ano, Robin-san? Are okay?"

Robin slowly looked over at him as he shook her shoulder and smiled weakly. "I'm just a little shocked at something I realized recently. I'm also a little worried, since I have nowhere to stay, and the money I have on me will probably be worthless here."

"What currency do you use?" The Hokage asked, curious.

"Beli." Robin reached into a pocket and held it out for him to examine. "Please allow me to hold on to it. If I ever do get home, I'd at least like to hold on to enough money to buy a few books or outfits."

"Oi, Robin!" She looked over at the excited young blonde. "You said you were a pirate, right? So did you have a bounty or something?"

"Yes. When I left, my bounty was approximately 80 million Beli. I don't know how much that is in the local currency, but a hundred beli might be enough to buy you a coffee or a small, non-alcoholic drink; a thousand beli is enough to buy several loaves of bread; twenty million beli was the highest bounty in East Blue , which is the weakest of the four Blues; two hundred million beli was enough to buy us the wood for our new ship and the work done on it, and the wood was extremely expensive as well."

"So," Naruto's face scrunched up again. "That's a lot?"

Robin was amused. "Yes. It was quite a bit, third highest in the crew. If you'd like to compare it to others in my world, then there were eleven rookie pirates that made it through the first half of the Grand Line and managed a bounty of over 100 million Beli, known as the Eleven Supernova."

Naruto's mouth opened wide. "Wow..."

"The Grand Line?" Sarutobi asked.

Robin took up another piece of paper, and drew on it again. "The Grand Line is a strip of extremely dangerous ocean that circles the world." There was a circle drawn on the paper now, with a band around it, the backside dotted to show that it was on the other side. She drew in a slimmer strip on either side. "It is surrounded on either side by the Calm Belts, which have no air or ocean currents, and are infested by gargantuan sea kings."

Naruto's face furled again; Robin noticed and took care of his confusion. "Large, eel shaped sea monsters. The ones in the Calm Belt have eyes that are several hundred times the size of our ship." She wiggled her fingers at him. "You would be less than a fruit fly to them."

"Are they bigger than the Hokage monument?" Naruto asked, naming the biggest thing he could think of.

Sarutobi pointed out the window, "It's just outside the window if you look."

"Well… that is awfully convenient." Robin said, and glanced out at the mountainside. "Maybe the head."

"One of the heads on the mountain?" Naruto asked, eyes shining.

"Of course not." Robin said dismissively, smirk playing on her lips. Naruto drooped. "The sea king's head."

Naruto's head shot back up. "Their heads are bigger than the mountain?!"

"The big ones are." Robin answered.

There was a cough behind them and they turned away from the window to look at Sarutobi. "If we could get back to the matter at hand?"

"What were we talking about?" Naruto asked.

"We were talking about Nico-san's current situation regarding money and living arrangements. She has money, but it's not in Ryo, and she doesn't have anywhere to stay."

"She can stay with me!" Naruto offered. She'd helped him get away from the villagers, even if she hadn't meant to, and she was nice to him, so why not?

Robin chuckled. "That's very kind of you. However, are you sure your apartment is big enough?"

Naruto frowned, and then shook his head slowly.

Sarutobi looked at the two. As little as the woman had actually told him, he understood that she was fond of children and apparently understood perfectly well what Naruto went through daily; she'd also said that she would protect him from the villagers if she saw him being chased again and would argue on his behalf if she heard people badmouthing him because of the fox. She couldn't stay in the boy's apartment, but the apartment complex…

"If I may make a suggestion?" Sarutobi asked. The other two nodded, one eager and hyperactive, the other slow and elegant. "There are a number of empty apartments in Naruto's building. At least one of them is near his. If you'd like, you could find temporary lodging there. The building is a government sponsored home for orphans, young shinobi that have nowhere to live on their pay, and elderly or disabled former shinobi who can no longer work and are living on a pension."

Robin looked at him unblinkingly for a few seconds. "I believe that would work. What work would I have to do for the lodgings and money to buy myself necessities?"

Sarutobi smiled, slightly vindictive. She shouldn't have shown him that power of hers earlier. It was almost like a shadow clone, only no chakra draining! "How do you feel about doing paperwork at the Hokage tower?"

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N- Yes, I did start a new story. This is one that I've actually had in my head for a while, and thought I'd get up now that I've finally started an account instead of just roaming aimlessly. I've read one or two stories where Zoro gets sent to Konoha after getting hit by Kuma's Slap of Awesome, but nothing with any of the other crew members. A few had to go where they went if they were going to get the training they were supposed to get and learn the information that they needed and make the connections they needed (Franky, Luffy, Zoro), and, while Robin met the Revolutionaries, they've got Sanji's connection to Ivankov for that. Besides, Robin's the only one that I could conceivably think of that could…**

**Never mind, no giving away the plot.**

**For those of you that are worried about various things, here are a few notes:**

**Robin won't be involved in any pairings. Playful flirting, probably, but nothing more than that, and yes, Kakashi will be involved in that. It will be Played for Laughs.**

**She will help more than just Naruto, he's just the first. With all the children she meets that are troubled or that come to her with their problems (and word will spread among the children), she'll tell her story and help them see just how much worse their situation could be: AKA- this is your miserable past on steroids.**

**She will end up working with Konoha, though not as a shinobi, and she will learn some chakra manipulation, but she'll focus on her Devil Fruit more.**


	2. Having Tea in the New Apartment

Robin looked around the apartment that the Hokage had offered her to use until she could find a way back home. He'd shown her where Naruto's apartment was, in case she needed someone to show where things in town were. He'd also mentioned that he thought it would be good for her to talk to the boy about the information concerning her life that she'd provided the night before, meager as it had been. He'd also happily reminded her to come to the Hokage Tower in the morning to get started on her temporary job, mentioning that, as the Academy was right next to the Tower, Naruto could show her where it was.

Sneaky old man.

Robin understood what he was trying to do. She understood all too well. However, she also agreed with him. Naruto, while he may have had a happy-go-lucky façade on most of the time, was a victim of circumstances well beyond his control and the target of hatred, fear, and disdain, much as she was at his age. Sarutobi, as Robin could see, was trying to have an adult influence in Naruto's life that understood what he went through. Sure, the teacher they'd mentioned, Iruka, could sympathize with him when it came to being an orphan, but Robin understood the other problems that Naruto suffered through as well. The Hokage was a smart man; he knew that they both understood what he'd done: she knew what he was doing; he knew that she knew; and she knew that he was aware that she did.

And both were perfectly okay with the situation.

Robin, like a certain green-haired crewmate one might name, was generally seen by people as cold and somewhat removed most of the time. Sure, she'd chuckle at her crewmates' antics and spent most of her time smiling in an amused and irritatingly knowing manner, but she was also the least likely of the crew to show any extreme levels of emotion, and the one that carried the most secrets, or so they'd assumed, before the incident at Enies Lobby, though she later began to suspect that the captain, through no fault of his own, was holding in a large number of secrets without even meaning to or realizing. But, just like that certain green-haired crewmate mentioned earlier, she had a very large soft spot for children and small animals, especially if they'd been through experiences similar to her own, which Naruto had been.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked around the sparsely furnished room. It was five in the afternoon, and she'd been released from the hospital earlier that morning. At least the light coming in from the window made the room look somewhat warm. She needed to get some books, learn the history of this world, and find if something like this had happened before. A piano would be nice, even though it would be a while before she managed to earn enough money for one. But first…

Her stomach grumbled.

… She needed to get some coffee. And maybe some cake too. Better not be too sweet, though...

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto looked up as he heard the knocking on the door. He put down the Academy scroll he'd been trying to memorize and walked over to look through the peephole. A grin, not completely faked, plastered itself onto his face. He threw the door open wide.

"Robin-san!" Naruto didn't really understand why he felt so respectful about Robin, but it was odd. He called the Hokage Jii-san, and everyone ripped on him for it, but for all he tried, he couldn't find it in himself to call this odd woman that fell from the sky anything that didn't include an honorific. Even in his head, he kept referring to the woman as Robin-san or Nico-san. Something about the woman, no matter how nice she was, somehow demanded respect even more than the Hokage did.

"Hello, Uzumaki-kun." She smiled down at him, as if amused at some joke only she could see. "Might I ask a favor of you?"

Naruto scuffed his foot on the floor, bottom lip pouting out a bit. "What kind of favor?"

"I simply need someone to show me where the market is. I have no food or drink stocked up in my temporary residence, so I need to go buy some."

Naruto nodded slowly. "Okay." He held up a finger, suddenly acting like his normally exuberant self, despite the tone of warning in his voice. "But I won't go into the stores with you."

"Oh?" Robin raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"'Cause if I do, they might make you pay more like when I go in." Naruto said promptly said.

"Ah." Robin said, slightly perturbed. "Very well then. Do you mind carrying my groceries?"

Naruto took a second to think. "Okay, but then you gotta finish telling me what you were telling us yesterday, about the world you come from. "

Robin chuckled. "Alright, then. I can do that. In return, you can show me where the Hokage Tower is on your way to school tomorrow."

Naruto nodded. "Okay. Let me put my shoes on. Or, you know, find them. I couldn't, earlier." He scampered away from the door, leaving it open, a clear indicator for Robin to wait inside.

As she walked in, Robin noticed that the room, though somewhat run down, was surprisingly clean and well-kept considering that it belonged to an eleven, almost twelve, year old boy. Still, it was messy by her standards, so why not clean up for the little orphan?

Hands sprung up from the floor as Robin pointed here, there, and everywhere, scooping away some rumpled clothing and scattered scrolls. At least the boy kept the kitchen area clear; she wouldn't have to clean up anything wet or sticky. The counters were, oddly enough, wiped completely clean of spills, and the garbage wasn't overflowing like most little kids', either. The contents of the garbage, on the other hand, worried her, lacking variety as they were, but she could probably convince him to buy some food for himself as well; considering what he'd just mentioned concerning his pricing by the villagers, she could probably persuade him to let her buy some for him.

"I'm rea- Woah!" Naruto came in from his bedroom, only to stop and gape in amazement at the multitude of hands that were everywhere. There were only a dozen or so, but to the young boy, it was absolutely amazing.

"How are you doing that?" He asked, pointing exaggeratedly at the hands that were, one by one, disappearing in flurries of sakura petals.

Robin simply raised a hand, growing a second arm from her shoulder, a second forearm from her elbow, and a second hand from her wrist. Then she let them disperse. "It's my special power, one that I got from a Devil Fruit."

Naruto frowned. "So it's like a Kekkei Genkai?"

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Remember, Uzumaki-kun, I am not from the Elemental Countries. I don't know what a Kekkei Genkai is."

Naruto nodded slowly, and said. "There are some families that have weird powers because of which family their born in. Like the Hyuuga. They look like they're blind, 'cause they have no pupils and their eyes are really pale, but they can actually see everything. Even stuff that's behind them, or through walls and stuff. It looks kind of weird when they use them; they get these really weird veins and stuff coming out around their eyes."

Robin though it over for a minute. "I understand. I believe it's the same as what Hokage-sama mentioned yesterday as strange powers that were genetically transferred. In answer to your question, my power is not genetic, no. I actually have it because I ate a magic fruit."

Naruto stared at her. "A magic fruit?"

Robin nodded, enjoying his look of surprise. "It's called a Devil Fruit. The power is called a Devil Fruit ability, and I am a Devil Fruit user. My Devil Fruit is called the Hana Hana no mi, because I can bloom parts of my body like flowers from any surface."

Naruto's eyes bugged. "Really? How many people can use this kind of stuff? Could I get one?"

Robin chuckled at his enthusiasm. "Anyone that eats a Devil Fruit can, though you can't eat a second one if you already have one."

"Why not?" Naruto asked.

"If you do, you explode."

Naruto paled, and Robin continued. "And no, you couldn't get one unless I was to find a way to go back home, and even then, Devil Fruits are notoriously rare. Now, would you like to go shopping?"

She gestured at the door, and Naruto hesitated for a second, and then walked out. Robin shut the door behind them, and they headed to the market.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto struggled with the bags he'd been told to hold onto. Robin had insisted on helping him buy some good food, and he had to carry that _and_ her food, like he'd promised. She'd explained more about her world to him as they'd walked, explaining about the Red Line and the Grand Line, about Devil Fruits, though not their weaknesses, about the Sky Islands thousands of meters above the sea, and Fishman Island, thousands of meters below. He asked what she meant by the weaknesses of a Devil Fruit, but Robin simply said that if no one knew what hurt her, she would be safer. When he countered, asking how he would be able to react to her being in trouble if he didn't know she was in trouble in the first place, she simply chuckled and ruffled his hair, replying that if she fell into trouble, he'd know and be able to help her.

He'd pouted.

Robin was in a bookstore right now, looking at what she could. The Hokage had given her a small amount of money on loan, and she'd had just enough left to buy a few books that she felt she would need. She'd said things about buying history books, as well as a few on chakra control, chakra manipulation, and simple jutsu after Naruto had told her about his academy classes.

Naruto was standing by the door, bored. He looked around, trying to find something interesting, when he heard The Call.

"Sasuke-ku~n!" Some rough pattering of two pairs of feet were coming towards him. "Why are you running from me?"

Mild cursing followed, sounding as if the speaker was trying to mutter it under his breath but was incapable of doing so do to lack of said breath.

Naruto's face soured quite a bit. That stuck up Sasuke was coming by, being chased by one of his fangirls again by the sounds of it. Naruto waited until the boy was running by him, then quickly reached out and grabbed him, pushing him into the small gap between buildings, and stood directly in front of him. Hopefully the stalker hadn't seen what he'd done.

"Sasuke-kun? Where did you go?" She was looking everywhere; Naruto recognized her as one of the girls that had dropped out of the Academy a few years earlier after the physical requirements got to be too much for her. The girl barely glanced at him, and then ran off, looking for her oh-so-precious Uchiha. Naruto waited a few more seconds before speaking.

"You so owe me one."

"Hn." The young Uchiha pulled himself out from between the buildings and looked Naruto up and down. "What are you doing standing outside a bookshop of all places, Usuratonkachi?"

Naruto glared at him. "A woman moved into the apartment next to mine, and she's new in town and doesn't know where anything is. She's really nice, so when she asked me to show her where the market and stuff were, I said okay, as long as she told more cool stuff about where she came from."

The Uchiha raised a brow. "And she has you carrying her groceries for her?"

Naruto was about to answer him, but a voice interrupted him from behind.

"Uzumaki-kun is very helpful when you offer him the information he finds interesting. I simply told him information anyone from home would know."

Naruto grumbled. "Except for the weaknesses of that weird fruit."

"Fruit?" Sasuke asked, trying not to sound too interested. Naruto waved him off, though inside he was dancing with glee over having information that his classmate did not.

"It would take too long to explain." Naruto said.

Robin chuckled behind her free hand, the other holding a bag with several books. "Well then, why not invite your friend over for tea at my new apartment? I'm sure he'd love to."

Sasuke looked on his guard, ready for yet another person that would try to take advantage of his status as an Uchiha. Naruto looked horror-struck.

"No way! This b-" he then said a word that made Robin look at him sharply, but he kept going, even though he shrank a bit under her gaze. "Is always showing off in class and stealing Sakura-chan and being all emo and making fun of me!"

"It's not showing off; I'm just that good. I don't actually want any of the girls that are after me, so you can keep that little pinkette to yourself for all I care. I'm not emo. And if you didn't want me to mock you, you should have studied more and done better in class when you sparred me. Hn." Sasuke retorted stiffly. Naruto stuck out a tongue at him and pulled down an eyelid, but stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Now, now, I think that's enough, boys." Robin said, smiling innocently. Naruto twitched a little, while Sasuke felt a shiver crawl down his spine.

"Hai, Robin-san."

"Now, how about you two pick up the bags that Uzumaki-kun left on the ground and come with me. By the way, young boy, what is your name?"

Robin was looking directly at Sasuke, and he felt himself being forced to answer, and worked to keep himself from looking away guiltily. "Uchiha Sasuke."

He waited for the recognition, the pitying or greedy looks, but none came. The woman, earlier named as Robin-san, simply nodded. "Alright then, Uchiha-kun. Let's follow Naruto to the apartment complex."

Sasuke simply picked up a few of the bags that Naruto had left and followed numbly. Why did this woman seem so dangerous?

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto brought his own groceries over to the counter before leaving his own apartment in favor of going over to Robin's. He thought it looked pretty empty, but she'd just moved in and had almost nothing to call her own, so it was understandable. He sat down on a chair in the almost empty kitchen, and tried to ignore the Uchiha next to him. Robin was standing at the counter, humming a jaunty tune to herself as she put a kettle on to boil.

As they waited for the water to heat up, Robin read a book while the boys looked on uncomfortably. Robin looked up at them at one point, and smiled at them, amused. "You could talk, you know."

"Hn."

"About what? All he ever says to me is that I'm some idiot that's never going to make Hokage or even be a shinobi!" Naruto pointed at Sasuke, who leaned away from the finger that came uncomfortably close to his head.

"You go to the same school and are in the same class, right? So talk about school." The boys simply looked at her, one looking overly incredulous, though it was nothing compared to what she'd seen in her crew, and the other doing his best to look apathetic, though he failed when his annoyance became somewhat pronounced.

"You are training to be shinobi. So practice. I don't mind if you spar in here so long as you don't break anything or get it dirty, so no weapons or jumping off the walls. Just follow those rules, and I'll watch and stop you if I think you've gone too far." She motioned at them to get a move on, and shooed them away from the table, glancing at the stove as she did so. The two boys glanced at one another for a second before moving to go the nearly empty living room. They took their stances, preparing to fight, when-

"Uzumaki-kun, your leg is too close to your body, and your hands are placed wrong. Uchiha-kun, your stance seems rather rigid and your knees are too straight; you won't be able to move very quickly all at once." Robin's voice called out.

Naruto blinked as he stood straight. "You know how to fight, Robin-san?"

Robin nodded, a smile playing on her lips. "I have many crewmembers with styles completely unique to themselves, and I have seen them fight both other people and among themselves many times. Furthermore, I have been hunted by people much more powerful than myself since I was only eight years old. I could not just rely on my Devil Fruit ability to survive, though I prefer weapons when not using my ability."

Sasuke frowned. This woman was so… odd. "What is this ability you keep mentioning?"

Naruto poked him in the shoulder, somewhat painfully. "Haven't you been listening? She ate a magic fruit, a Devil Fruit!"

Sasuke glared at him. "Excuse me if I find that hard to believe."

He heard a feminine chuckle from behind him and spun around to glare at the woman. "Actually, he is telling the truth. I ate a Devil Fruit called the Hana Hana no mi and gained its powers when I was six years old."

Sasuke stared at her.

"Now spar, and I'll watch and help you when I see a mistake." Her voice was kind, but hid a steely tone underneath.

"Hai, Robin-san." Both boys said, and Sasuke had no time to wonder on the fact that he'd actually used an honorific, which he never did, as he immediately had to dodge an attack from Naruto, albeit an admittedly sloppy one.

Naruto felt Robin watching, even though the glances he managed to catch between moves showed that she was still engrossed in her book. He tried to fight Sasuke as best he could, though he was still losing, and see how Robin reacted. She had been nice to him, was a good and powerful pirate, and told really cool stories, so if he did well in the fight, she might tell him more. Too bad it wasn't working out that well for him. Sasuke was doing a lot better in the spar than Naruto was.

A high pitched whistle blew through the air, and the boys broke apart, panting heavily with a few bruises-to-be on each of them, to look over at Robin who had set down her book and turned to the tea pot.

"Well, come and sit down, will you?" Robin chuckled and the battered boys walked over to the table and sat down.

"Aren't you going to get the tea? Or send one of us to get it instead?" Sasuke asked. Robin just grinned at him, an entertained sparkle dancing in her eyes.

"You're right. I suppose I should."

Sasuke waited a few seconds, then, feeling rather stupid, finally asked. "Why aren't you, then?"

Naruto snickered from beside him. "But she _is_."

Sasuke turned to look at first Naruto, then Robin, and then slowly turned to the stove behind him.

"Hn." No emotion was on his face.

Naruto pouted. "Aw. C'mon, teme, you can't act like you're not surprised! It's no fun that way."

"Hn."

"Do you think he's in shock or something?" Naruto questioned Robin.

"It's possible, I suppose." She smiled as a pair of hands passed her tea to her. Another pair of hands each passed some tea to rest in front of Naruto and Sasuke.

"Oi, wake up." Naruto snapped his fingers in front of Sasuke's face. "Hey, Robin, can I slap him to get him awake?"

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Why are you asking me? I'm not your teacher or some government official or anything."

Naruto shrugged. "It's your apartment. Iruka-sensei says that if you ever visit someone in their own home, to follow the rules unless they make no sense, make you lose large amounts of pride, dignity, or health, or make you really uncomfortable. Hitting someone might fall under some rules, so I gotta ask permission."

Robin nodded slowly. "I understand. For now, just leave him. If his tea starts getting cold, you can slap him lightly. Very lightly, alright?"

"Hai, Robin-san." Naruto nodded and started to sip his tea. The two sat in silence, enjoying their warm drinks, and waited for the third person in the room to start showing signs of life again. They were rewarded after a few minutes with faint stirrings from the Uchiha.

"How?" His voice cracked a bit, almost with longing for a power like that, to Robin's ears. Actually, she was pretty sure she could see something power-hungry in his eyes.

Robin smiled at him from over her tea cup. "Calm down a bit first. Drink some tea." She motioned to the cup in front of him, which he took up and slowly sipped, his eyes not leaving hers as he, the way it seemed to Robin, analyzed the threat in front of him. He set the cup down in front of him again, took a deep breath with his eyes closed, and then looked back up at Robin again.

"How?"

Robin smiled at him, eyes closed. "As Uzumaki-kun said, I ate a Devil Fruit when I was six, and gained these powers from it as a result. Of course, there is a rather large weakness that is well known among the people of my world, but so long as I don't tell anyone here, I shouldn't be too badly off. I got lucky, you know. Many Devil Fruits either seem downright useless and the owner never figures out how to use it, or they actually are. I got one that's actually rather self-explanatory and proves its usefulness from the beginning. Simply grow a pair of hands out of a person's back and snap their neck, and there, they're dead." She smiled innocently and sipped at her tea. "Mmm, nice, but I'd prefer some coffee."

Sasuke blinked slowly. "The way you say it, it's as if anyone could eat one." There was that glint in his eye, but Robin ignored it.

"Theoretically, yes, most people could eat one. But, as I said, there is a rather important weakness in a Devil Fruit, which leads many to not eating them. On top of that, you don't always know what you'll get, so it's a bit of a gamble when you eat one. Moreover, they're extremely rare, and show up randomly from the sea. I got mine by accident, just found it on the beach one day when I was really hungry; it tasted rather horrible. Lastly, if a person's already eaten one, then they'll explode if the eat a second. If you get a dud, you don't have a second chance for a more powerful one. You're stuck with what you've got."

Sasuke nodded along, his head spinning with the influx of extremely odd information. If he could get ahold of one of the powerful ones, he'd have a better chance of killing his brother, right? Though he'd have to find out what this weakness was first…

"You forgot to mention that there aren't any here." Naruto piped up. Sasuke's head snapped over to look at his blonde classmate and barely-friend. Sort-of friend. Not really.

He helped him out with getting away from fangirls from time to time.

"Yes, I suppose I did. However, I hope you don't make a habit of mentioning where I'm from to everyone we meet, Uzumaki-kun. I may not mind very much, but Hokage-sama may."

Naruto looked down. "Sorry, Robin-san."

"It's alright. In any case, he's too curious to ignore, now, so why don't you tell him?" Robin suggested.

Naruto nodded vigorously before turning to the boy next to him. He grinned, and Sasuke suddenly felt a feeling of dread form in the pit of his stomach, screaming_ run away, run away, you'll never unhear this, it'll just lead you to a pit of insanity! INSANITY, I TELL YOU!_

"Robin-san's from a different world entirely."

…

…

_THUMP_.

…

"Robin-san, I think he's gone into shock again."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I hope I didn't have you guys waiting too long! I was actually going to update on Impossible first, but this got such a good response that I just couldn't hold back. In any case I have a few comments I'd like to make in response to some comments I got.**

**The Mobbing Cliché: This annoys me too. I know it's seen everywhere in Naruto fanfiction, and it's annoying when it's ridiculously overdone, which I why I, very clearly, had Sarutobi stress that this was an **_**extremely**_** rare occurrence when Robin questioned him about it.**

**Chakra vs. Haki: I actually got into a really fun discussion with a reviewer about this. I don't usually have anywhere to debate imaginary concepts crossing dimensions or anywhere to debate fictional concepts in general, so I had a ridiculous amount of fun just debating with this guy. So here's the response that I typed up for him (or her, I'm not quite sure).**

**First Reply:**

**Actually, I have an explanation for those.**

**As for being from a different world: the rules of Naruto say that everything has its own chakra: plants, animals, people, you name it. I don't think being from a different world would change anything. Besides, I don't think I've ever actually seen anything in Naruto regarding foreign worlds.**

**Learning chakra has to be done as a child? The way I see it, chakra control can be learned at any age, it's just that the chakra pools have to be unlocked early in life. And Sarutobi, as stated in the story, felt her chakra "twist" when she used her devil fruit powers, even though none was actually expended, right?**

**Don't you just love author's license?**

**Second Reply:**

**Haki and chakra are different. The way I see it, the worlds are different enough that, while the equivalent powers exist, no one has ever bothered to find out how to use them. In other words, chakra and Haki both exist in both worlds, but people in One Piece have superior weaponry, Devil Fruits, and Haki, so no ever needed to figure out how to use chakra, nor had any incentive to figure out how something that they weren't even aware of existing. Same with Haki in the ninja world: there are demons made of chakra and such, so they learned how to use it and where it came from through observation. Since chakra could be used to enhance killing intent, certain doujutsu could predict minds, some jutsu (like the Yamanaka clan's) can be used to read thoughts, and earth chakra techniques can be used to shield the body in a way similar to Haki, the need for Haki never came up, and someone unlocking it would be attributed to a fluke or a dormant bloodline or something.**

**As for descriptors?**

**Haki, it's a force of willpower. That is exactly how it's described in the series. Chakra, on the other hand, is a mixture of physical and spiritual energy. I'm trying to focus in on the Devil Fruits (and even though it's just superstition, some people in One Piece still say they have demons in them. Still, just a superstition) somehow locking in on the spiritual energy and using it to kickstart the Devil Fruit powers. People naturally have physical power, but spiritual is rarely used, so the devil fruit unlocks the spiritual aspect, and it mixes naturally from there. You rarely see a Devil Fruit user that isn't physically fit, since most are pirates or marines, so the physical aspect is enhanced there as the spiritual aspect grows with their usage of their fruit.**

**There are no "rules of fanfiction" for something like this. There is a reason it's called fanfiction after all. It's not as if Kishi and Oda got together one day and just made some rules for crossovers between the worlds. Besides, I never meant for her to learn more than dispelling a genjutsu (for defensive reasons), MAYBE henge (and that is a very big maybe), and some sealing, and that's just to carry things more easily; some chakra control techniques like tree walking (useful) and water walking (totally gamebreaking right there) will be included. She'll learn chakra theory and stuff, but she'll only use that to figure out how to better manipulate her fruit. Most of what she chooses to learn in the ninja world is their history after all, not their techniques.**


	3. Hana Hana no Mi

Sasuke walked home from the… meeting… he'd had with the dead last and his new neighbor. The woman, Nico Robin, as she called herself, was kind, gentle, pretty, seemed to quite love children…

And undoubtedly dangerous.

His danger senses, on high alert for nigh on four years running, now, screamed at him every time he came near her. He could relax, of course, for a few seconds, but then she'd make a move that betrayed just how used to fighting she was and he would feel his muscles clench ever so slightly in a fight or flight response. She'd move too smoothly for anything other than royalty or an assassin, make a comment about killing or death too casually for anyone other than those that have never seen it or those that have seen too much, emit too little sound while walking for one unaccustomed to sneaking around, use her power to get something with too little thought for one that was unused to killing with it…

She was simply too much and too little to be anything other than a trained fighter, a trained assassin, a trained killer, shinobi or not. She could kill him, and almost anyone else, he guessed, with frightening ease, probably as easily as the Yondaime Hokage took out Iwanin during the Third Great Shinobi War.

Yet he couldn't help but trust her. There was something about her when she spoke to him that struck a chord in him. He almost felt as if she'd been looking into his soul during the conversation with her and Uzumaki over tea, looking into his soul and judging him to her standards, almost as if to see just how much he'd suffered in life so far… and thinking that it wasn't _quite_ the worst story she'd ever heard, despite the fact that he never spoke a word of it.

Sasuke shuddered at his thoughts. His brother had murdered his entire clan. If that thought he'd had was anywhere near the truth, he almost didn't want to hear the sadder stories she could tell. After he'd woken up back at the apartment, and hit Uzumaki several times for mocking him, Robin had proceeded to tell him story after wondrous story about her world; some were about amazing places she had visited, or heard of, while others simply outlined how her world worked, which was deceptively interesting. Story after story after story, drunken up with childish glee in the fantasy painted with words, sitting by himself and his not-really friend…

And then sworn to silence by the both of them. When he asked why, Robin-san had simply smiled and said that she had powerful enemies and that if word of her powers got out, she would eventually be hunted down and killed. All this was said while holding him in a deadly headlock and Naruto standing next to her looking ridiculously innocent.

He'd agreed, of course. He'd agreed, and she'd smiled, and Uzumaki had snickered at him. She'd then released him and offered that both of the boys come back after she got off work the next day, and promptly led both the preteens out the door. He would probably have left while thinking something about being an Uchiha, and how he shouldn't be threatened by some newcomer that was hanging out with the dead last (because, really, death threats to the last surviving member of a clan are not conducive to a good relationship with the village you're staying in, no matter how beautiful you are…)

o.o.o.o.o

Far away, in a different dimension, an unbelievably beautiful woman sneezed before going back to ordering one of her subjects to get some more food for the ship that would help her beloved to save his brother.

o.o.o.o.o

But he wasn't thinking that, surprisingly enough. The woman was pretty, yes, even beautiful, but it wasn't the reason that she expected people to fulfill her orders; that was obvious. It wasn't that people wanted to please her in order to see her smile; they wanted to please her so that they wouldn't end up dead, or at least hurt or contorted into odd positions by those scary arms of hers.

And maybe to see her smile if they knew her well enough.

She wasn't mean; her kindness wasn't a complete sham, like many people that spoke to him. She was, however, deadly and dangerous and commanded a level of respect that he wasn't particularly used to. She'd even had him using an honorific, which he most definitely didn't do for most people, especially since the massacre. He occasionally referred to one of his teachers as sensei or addressed the Hokage with the necessary "-sama," but he didn't really feel much like saying it when he did. Sure, he was rude, but did that really matter to an Avenger?

Apparently, when in the presence of women gifted with, as she claimed, the powers of the devil: yes, yes it did. The woman's aura simply commanded respect, no matter how kind or amused she seemed otherwise. Sasuke wanted to learn how to do that, to have a feeling about him that made people realize he was dangerous and worth respect. He almost pouted (but he didn't; Uchihas don't pout, after all); she didn't even seem to be trying to do it. She just… _did_.

He couldn't really rationalize it to himself. This woman was powerful, was an honest-to-goodness _pirate_ (and though he'd never admit it to anyone else, he'd always held a certain partiality to adventurous, not-evil pirate stories as a child, and here this woman was, actually _living_ those stories), was probably capable of killing even Itachi, and probably would have been able to even at Sasuke's age or younger, but he didn't find himself jealous. He just found himself somewhat scared (when she'd threatened him), respectful (the entire time; this part scared him almost as much as she herself did), and…

Well, there was a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest that made him think of when his own mother had read him stories to help him get to sleep at night when she'd still been alive…

o.o.o.o.o

Robin was working. Contrary to what the Hokage had hoped, she had refused to use her powers for the job to make the work go by faster. When asked why, she replied that the less people knew about her, the more likely she was to survive if attacked. He'd asked just who, Nico-san, she had told about her powers to that point, and so help her if she had done something that broke one of the rules she set for herself that she wouldn't bend to get some of the paperwork done.

"Uzumaki-kun and Uchiha-kun. Both of whom have promised not to tell."

"And what do you think could convince them not to tell?" Sarutobi had asked, exasperated.

Robin had smiled. "Uzumaki-kun seems to trust me, and he saw that you seemed to trust me to be around him, and has adopted me as one of his 'precious people.'" No need to tell the old man how the comment had reminded her of her own (missing, _scattered_, _**gone**_) crew when they had come to Enies Lobby and declared war on the World Government for her. "Uchiha-kun, after seeing my powers, was easily… persuaded…"

Sarutobi had blanched. "Please don't tell me you—"

"The exact same way I persuaded you to tell me Uzumaki-kun's secret."

Sarutobi had buried his head in his hands. "You can't just threaten the life of the Uchiha clan heir." He hadn't mentioned that Sasuke was the _only_ Uchiha left other than his brother, who was off spying on Akatsuki, undercover, and considered a traitor by all but himself, Jiraiya, and the advisors. He wouldn't just mention Itachi's real situation to anyone, but he could have mentioned the massacre. He just, you know, _didn't_. "That's, quite frankly, a very stupid thing to do. Would you have even followed through with the threat?"

Robin had shrugged. "It worked, he won't tell, he's neither dead nor dying, so does it really matter?"

Sarutobi had continued to stare at her. "Would you have?" He had pressed.

Robin had smiled sadly as she'd shaken her head. "I don't kill children, Hokage-sama."

He had sighed and sat back in his seat. "This will not end well."

Robin had shrugged, pleasant, knowing smile back on her face. "Very few things do."

"Well, if you know what you're doing…" And he'd waved her off.

So here she was now, working like any normal person, sort of. Of course, just because she'd said she didn't want anyone seeing what she was doing didn't mean she was going to quit using her powers in this situation altogether. She was in a building full of ninja; she wasn't going to just leave herself open to attack. An eye here, an ear there…

Her hand slowed down as she closed the file cabinet she'd been at. Her eye was seeing something other than the Hokage tower. It was seeing… the sea.

Robin stopped what she was doing. She folded her hands in her lap, closed her eyes, and allowed the eyes she had around the Hokage tower to dissipate. She may have wanted to be able to pay attention to the ninja around her, but she _had_ to focus on this. She couldn't give herself a choice.

Robin's power was an interesting one. To be able to use it, she had to know, at the least, the general area of where her target was. It didn't really matter if she could see it, though that was helpful, but she needed to know where to grow one from in order to do so. She didn't necessarily have to know the specifics, but to have a few dozen centimeters of leeway was enough; as she'd gotten better at using her powers, the less specifically she'd had to think, the less focus she'd have to use. So if she wanted something to grow out of a thin post, she'd need to focus on the post, thinking specifically of the post. If she wanted something to grow out of a wall, she simply needed to think of the wall and a general area, unless she had a specific part of the wall in mind. It was as simple as looking: if she focused her eyes on a spot, she was thinking of the spot: if she thought of a spot, it grew out of that spot. If she just had a wall in mind, when she looked at the wall, her eyes would trail over it, jerking to a stop on parts of the wall randomly: if she thought of a wall when using her powers, then her body parts would bloom from a random spot on the wall. She didn't need to put more effort in to grow more specifically, but she did have to have something in mind.

A second thing to note would be that, ever since she'd come to Konoha, she had felt odd when using her powers. It felt as if the surfaces she'd grown things from were warped, as if the… aura, perhaps? Maybe this chakra that Naruto had mentioned? Robin didn't know… was twisted, was out of phase. It was as if it usually felt like one color, but was now a different one, though still rather similar: like turquoise turning to sky blue, part of the same color-family, but not the exact same. She could somewhat compare it to drawing a graph of it, with a large peak, and then that peak was shifted over a bit. Its asymptote moved, its vertex changed, the whole thing was moved ever so slightly to the right or left, _something_ was just that tiniest bit different.

As a result, when she felt her powers grabbing for a more familiar sensation that she didn't even really notice, she simply grew the eye where it felt natural, and without an extreme focus on where she was going to. So the logical conclusion, when she found herself looking at the ocean, was that the dimensions overlapped the way she'd assumed, and a ship had just passed through somewhere close enough to where she'd been planning to be looking out from a few floors down, in the basement, that this fluke had occurred. As the ship moved, she quickly grew several more flowers out around the ship she'd accidently latched onto by using focal points she could see from the original eye she'd grown, and looked around to find an island. She could see Sabaody a couple kilometers off, and after orienting herself to see which way it was and estimating the distance as quickly as she could, let go of the grown eyes as the ship passed out of her admittedly meager range.

"Well, that was interesting. Perhaps my endeavor to rejoin the crew as quickly as possible isn't as hopeless as I thought…" Robin mused, and then wrote down the direction and distance she'd seen, and got back to work.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto and Sasuke, as they'd promised, came back to talk to Robin again, and to have tea as she'd said. She seemed distracted, but she still pointed out small mistakes in their form as they sparred, and still told them stories of what she'd seen along the Grand Line and old stories she'd read while studying archeology, folk tales and such. As she spoke, she watched the boys' reactions, gauging whether she was telling them something that they found boring. After three or four small stories, she'd asked them if there were any stories that they could tell her about Konoha and the Elemental Countries. Naruto had launched into a drawn out narrative about when the Kyuubi had attacked almost twelve years earlier.

Sasuke interjected several times, correcting Naruto about some fact that the two had learned at school, and making some small mocking comment. Robin listened as Naruto spoke, wincing inwardly at how Naruto spoke of the day he'd been effectively cursed, and then asked if there was a story that Sasuke could tell her. He'd stayed silent for a few moments, and then started talking about three ninja, called the Legendary Sannin, that had come from Konoha and been in the Second Shinobi war. His story wasn't so much a narrative as it was just a rambling description of the three people he was describing, though Robin had to admit it was informative, regardless of Naruto's look of deadened boredom. At six o'clock, she'd sent them off home, and walked out into the town, looking around.

Robin looked at the Hokage tower and then down at the paper she'd written on when she'd looked out from the ship. She headed off outwards from the Hokage tower, until she'd come to the wall that surrounded the entire village. "This is about two or three kilometers away from the tower. I suppose I could try." She leaned against the wall, and then brought her hands to her shoulders and closed her eyes, focusing, trying to feel out the more familiar sensation she'd felt earlier that day. After about fifteen minutes, she was rewarded as an eye grew out of yet another ship, which was coming in towards a port that was about two or three hundred meters away. After noting its position, Robin let her eye dissipate and stood up straight again. "I guess I'll just have to ask the Hokage for permission to leave the village for a bit for tomorrow. I doubt he's all that happy about me being here anyway, after all I've done so far. He'll probably jump at a chance to help get me out of this town."


	4. Sabaody Excursion Part 1

Robin had not garnered permission to leave the village, nor had she expected to, for a short time the next day no matter how much the Hokage wanted her out of there, which was less than she actually thought. She was so used to people she'd only just met distrusting her and wanting her gone or captured, that the idea that someone outside the crew and their allies actually not minding her presence was somewhat foreign to her. He disapproved a bit because of the threats she'd made to both him and Uchiha Sasuke, but wanting her gone simply for being who she was? That was another matter entirely, and not one that he subscribed to.

Robin had, despite these misunderstandings and the Hokage's vaguely neutral, vaguely approving—in concerns to her kind treatment of Naruto—feelings, managed to get permission to leave for several hours on that Saturday. Considering that the day she'd even realized the dimensional access of her powers was a Tuesday, and the day she'd requested access to the forest for was a Wednesday, it would be a few days before she could go. Just a few days, however, wasn't too much for her to deal with if it meant she had a chance to find a way back at all. She'd have to have a shinobi escort, of course, but she had permission to temporarily leave all the same.

She'd made sure that whoever was coming with her was someone the Hokage trusted implicitly, that they wouldn't spill any secrets if told not to; the Hokage had understood, and offered a Jounin, as he didn't quite think an escort would be of any effect if they were of a lower ranking than such, that he knew was loyal to him, to Konoha, and would be able to keep any secret he was told to.

Sarutobi also saw fit to mention that Robin was, under no circumstances, to threaten the shinobi in any way, even if he took out literature that she didn't approve of. Robin's response?

She didn't care what he read or said so long as he kept his hands off and, though the second part had nothing to do with perversity, made no move to kill her. Unless he disturbed her in her investigation of the odd, trans-dimensional phenomenon and search for information on her crewmates, she would ignore him and do as she pleased within the bounds of what she was allowed to do. The Hokage just felt a strange sense of relief and peculiarity; most kunoichi hated perverts, yet this woman, a pirate and assassin, had absolutely no qualms so long as they kept their hands off, and, he was guessing, didn't peep on her while she was naked. He was sure that many of the village's male shinobi would be thankful to hear that, if word of her—slightly ridiculous, and ridiculously potent, in his opinion—power ever got out.

Really, far too many of his subordinates were perverts. Not exactly "super" perverts like Jiraiya, but somewhat perverted all the same. Of course, a large part of the reason for them being perverts in the first place was Icha Icha, which sort of made the perversity Jiraiya's fault…

In any case, Robin had permission, she had someone that would watch her to make sure she didn't disappear or do anything that would hurt Konoha, and she had a goal. She was good to go that Saturday.

o.o.o.o.o

Hatake Kakashi was intrigued by the assignment that the Hokage had given him. Just to watch a single woman in the forest outside Konoha for a few hours didn't seem all that important, but it was classed as a B-class mission, so there was probably something he was missing. Considering he usually took S-class or A-class missions, he viewed this as a small holiday of sorts. He was also going to be taking on a genin team in a few months' time, so… yeah.

He showed up at the door to the woman's apartment at eight o'clock sharp—like he was going to be late for a genuine (in other words, not a D-class) mission from the Hokage. He's lazy with punctuality, but not _that_ lazy—and knocked politely. The Hokage may have said that the woman was more neutral towards perverts than most kunoichi, but he wasn't taking any chances.

The door opened and there stood a good-looking woman about his age, wearing a cowboy hat—though he didn't actually know that that's what it was called; he just assumed that the hat was there to shade her eyes, which was definitely part of it—and with a small backpack over her shoulder. She was athletic, Kakashi saw, but not exactly in the way ninja were. There was also an odd tint to her chakra, not exactly human, that he couldn't quite understand the presence of.

"Hatake-san, I presume?" Her voice seemed a bit amused, but Kakashi wrote it off as nothing important. All shinobi and, he assumed, pirates like this woman, were bound to have some quirk. Her amusement probably just had something to do with that.

"Hai. Would that mean that you are Nico Robin?" He already figured that she was, but it was polite to ask and it would be nice to have confirmation.

"Mm." Robin gave a small, slow nod to the Copy-Nin, amused smile still playing on her lips, and took a small step forward, just enough for Kakashi to take the hint and step back far enough for her to come into the hallway without either of them compromising their personal space. "Shall we head out?"

Kakashi nodded in the affirmative. Robin came out of the apartment, and pulled the door closed behind her, locking it up. She walked off down the hallway, making no move to signal Kakashi to come after her. Nevertheless, it was clear that she expected him to follow regardless.

As Robin walked down the street, heading towards the southern part of the outer wall, Kakashi followed behind along rooftops from a respectful distance. As he passed them through the guards at the gate, proving that they had permission to leave and enter the village as they pleased for that day, he noticed that Robin had tensed slightly at the sight of the guards. A civilian wouldn't have been able to notice her reaction, but Kakashi had been a Jounin for almost fifteen years, now, and an ANBU for a large portion of that time; he knew what to look for, and how to see.

They were in the forest when Robin finally stopped and sat down on a rock, rifling through her backpack. She pulled out a pad and pencil, laid them on her lap, and set her backpack to the side. Kakashi watched her from the tree he was standing in as she brought her hands up to her shoulders and closed her eyes, going very still. Kakashi kept watching, but for several more hours, he would see nothing, only moving when Robin got up every half hour or so and walked a few hundred meters in any given direction, finding somewhere new to sit each time with eyes that were barely open to make sure she didn't run into or trip over something.

He didn't know what it was that had this labeled as a B-class: Hokage-sama probably could have made it a C-class, given it to a team of genin, and been done with it. He stuck with it anyway: a vacation of sorts for him.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin's day, in contrast, was as interesting as Kakashi's was boring and confusing—to a certain point. As soon as she'd reached what she deemed an appropriate distance, she'd allowed herself to sink into something close to a trance, and sought out a feeling that would lead to her growing an eye on Sabaody. Several minutes into her self-imposed mission, her powers randomly latched onto the wall of a fishing hut, and she found herself staring at the wall of an alley. She looked to the sides, judged which side had more light, and grew a new eye out of the wall there, making sure to have a good hold on that wall before she allowed her first one to disperse. Thus did she repeat the patter until she saw a wooden box several hops in, which she latched onto the side of, and looked all the way down the alley.

So did the first part of Robin's day go: she grew eyes here and there, taking in the damage—there must have been a battle with the marines and one of the other pirate crews on the archipelago—and trying to catch gossip with well-placed ears. As it turned out, there _had_ been a fight here, between Admiral Kizaru and several of the other Supernovas, and then he'd left to deal with her own crew after it was over. Robin couldn't exactly see as much as she'd hoped to, but she had an idea of what Sabaody had been like since she'd left several days earlier.

She dearly wanted to find the Sunny, but it had probably been hidden by Shakky and Rayleigh after the crew had left Sabaody, unwilling as their departure had been. She hoped that she was the only one that had actually crossed worlds when evicted from the area; she didn't think anyone else was capable of coming back.

She'd spent three hours just looking around and eavesdropping, writing down anything interesting in the notebook she'd brought; considering she was starting with the outer groves, specifically near the fishing oriented ones, there wasn't much else to do, nor did the information vary much outside the specific fights that had occurred on the groves and how the fish were biting. Three and a half hours in, she'd worked her way closer to the more populated and lawless areas, walking several hundred meters through the forest surrounding Konoha every half hour or so when her own powers reached their limit in distance.

Robin watched as a Tenryuubito passed, a somewhat disgusted expression crossing her face back in the forest—Kakashi saw, but didn't know what to make of it, just like everything else that she'd done thus far, and so ignored it—and made sure that her eyes just then were well hidden, since there wasn't as much hustle and bustle to hide them as there had been earlier. After the noble and her entourage passed by, Robin returned her eyes to a higher vantage point, and picked out a newspaper stand a few dozen meters away. Finally.

It was tricky, but she'd managed to steal away a copy of the paper without alerting anyone as the stand's young owner was flirting with a pretty Marine girl who couldn't have been more than a few years older than the youngest of the Straw Hats. Focused as she was on simply getting ahold of the newspaper and getting up onto higher roots where no one would be able to see a pair of arms with eyes on the hands reading a newspaper, she hadn't thought to glance at what was written on any of the newspapers she'd grabbed.

Good thing, too, considering her reaction when she had finally looked. She doubted she would have been able to steal the papers without being caught if she'd thought to look beforehand.

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi was confused. First the woman had had that look of disgust on her face, then she'd smiled triumphantly, looked blank a bit more…

And now she was freaking out (sort of).

"No, no, no!" She whispered, eyes darting everywhere. Was she going to hyperventilate? Kakashi didn't think she was quite there yet, but Robin was definitely getting closer to that level of panic, even if she didn't really show it. That woman seemed far too good at hiding her emotions for a non-ninja. Maybe it was due to her job as an assassin from wherever she'd come from. The muttering, on the other hand…

"Nico-san?" Kakashi dropped out of the tree and landed in front of the woman who had, by now, calmed herself enough to bring out her notebook and pencil again.

"I'm alright. I just found out some rather troubling information. I need to focus now, so please don't disturb me."

"Is there anything you may need my aid for?"

"No, thank you." She closed her eyes again, but didn't bring her arms back to shoulders as she had each time earlier, choosing instead to keep ahold on the pencil in her hand, the other keeping a firm grip on the notepad; her knuckles were white with how tightly she was gripping it.

Her dismissal was enough to send him back into the trees, though he definitely made sure to keep a far more careful eye on her than he had earlier. It was barely noon, so there were still several hours left until they had to go back to the gates. He watched as she slowly alternated between focusing her attention somewhere unknown with her eyes closed, and carefully writing something down in her notebook with a rather perturbed expression on her face.

Eventually, Robin stood up again and, more slowly than before, headed off in yet another random direction. Kakashi, after what he'd just seen, grew slightly more interested in what she was doing. Until then, she'd done nothing that was really of interest, but now he'd seen her do something that he couldn't explain, and felt like he needed some more information on this woman. After all, the Hokage hadn't really told him much outside of her history as a pirate, archeologist, and assassin. He couldn't even see anything about what she was doing when he uncovered his Sharingan, only a tainted chakra that he couldn't make heads or tails of.

Looks like the famous copy-nin just found something interesting to study.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin kept on looking at the papers she'd stolen, only capable of thinking, for the first few minutes, at least, thoughts along the lines of _This is bad, How will Luffy react,_ and _I have to contact Shakky._

This last thought was what she finally acted upon. Shakky knew everything that was happening, or at least a good portion of this, and would be able to tell her if there were already plans in motion for what was occurring. After all…

There were less than twenty-four hours left until the execution of Portgas D. Ace.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: This is currently my only story that actually has, you know, a **_**plot**_**. ****Impossible**** is, well, crack with no real plot, or even a fixed timeline, considering I jump all over the place (EDIT 2/2/2013: it also hasn't been updated in nearly a year); ****AK: PCO**** (the kitten story) is a parody that's going to be all over the place. ****Fly Free**** is pretty much the only story I have that I've planned for liberally.**

**In other regards to this chapter, this will not be Kakashi/Robin. They'll know each other, maybe even be friends, but no romance.**


	5. Sabaody Excusion Part 2 and Marineford

A/N: Like I said, this is my only story with plot. It, as a result, gets more attention.

A helpful note would be that there's a tiny time-skip (like, a couple of hours spent travelling from the newsstand to Shakky's Rip-Off Bar) in between the end of the last chapter and this start of this one. This is also the first chapter in which controlled substances are mentioned, but considering that we're talking about Naruto (which brings us Asuma the smoke-stack and Tsunade and Tazuna the drunks) and One Piece (_everyone_ of legal age drinks, as do many underneath it, and there's at least one character in each arc that smokes, not to mention that every arc barring the early short arcs, Amazon Lily, Impel Down, and the Marineford arcs… there's _Sanji_) it really should have been expected. In case you want a heads up, the first sentence of non-dialogue is where Shakky is mentioned, smoking. And it happens again, and later yet again with the Hokage and his pipe.

And as always, please review.

o.o.o.o.o

"I wasn't quite expecting any of you Straw Hats to find your ways back so quickly, but from what you've told me, nobody could've predicted what happened to you. The only one that probably did was Kuma, and I suppose that Vegapunk may have been able to as well. I guess Kuma knew what he was doing when he sent you there instead of any of the others." Shakky leaned back against the counter, arms folded and cigarette in her mouth.

The hand in front of her waved up and down in an approximation of a nod, and picked up the pencil that had been lying on the notepad again. Another hand, one with an eye on its palm, was set up to look down at the notepad, which was set between yet another pair of eyes and ears; these were in turn geared towards Shakky.

_I am glad to know that Kuma was actually on our side. Do you believe that it would be safe for me to attempt to come and watch the incidents involving the execution tomorrow? I came across several newspapers that claimed that it was to be broadcast all over the island._

Shakky blew out a stream of smoke. "That's hard to say. Marines will be everywhere. They'll be keeping a sharp eye out, but from what I've seen, you can be discreet enough with your powers that no one even realizes what it is until you tell them or show them in a rather blatant manner. There shouldn't be too much of a problem."

_I can imagine what Luffy must be going through. Knowing him, he must have already found a way to try and save his brother. Compound that with the fact that all the high ranking marines are going to be there, the Shichibukai are involved (and that you suspect the lone female member has fallen for my captain), __and__the Whitebeard pirates are undoubtedly going to try and save Ace as well…_ Robin's writing trailed off, pen tapping on the table nervously.

"Chaos…" Shakky murmured around the cigarette in her mouth. "Well, I'm not closing up shop until about midnight, so are you staying any longer? Rayleigh's off doing who knows what again, so it's not like I have much to do until pirates with too much money and too little sense start showing up to drown their sorrows about the fiasco that happened with the marines right before you got sent away."

The pen tapped for a few more seconds, and then began to write again. _I believe that I should head back to the village. The time here and in Konohagakure no Sato seems to be the same, so I believe I will be able to return to see the execution tomorrow on time. If I explain the situation and all the factions involved in it, I should be able to get permission to come again tomorrow. I'll see if I can stop by again after it's over to speak to you regarding my actions afterwards._

Shakky nodded, a small smile on her lips. "Good luck, Nico Robin." The hands on the table disappeared in a flurry of petals.

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi blinked as the woman he'd been assigned to watch stood up and began to head back towards Konoha. He decided to skip protocol and follow along next to her.

"Find anything interesting?" He asked, nose buried in his book.

Robin frowned, hesitating slightly. "I am only telling you this because the Hokage claimed that you were one of his most trusted, and I may need some aid in convincing him to allow me to venture out of the village once more tomorrow."

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "Oh?"

Robin nodded, face set forward and gaze troubled. "Hai. The situation back home is far more tense than I imagined it would be."

Kakashi waited a few more seconds, and then prompted her as she seemed to be expecting him to. "And?"

"You need to understand," Robin said, still not looking at him, "Where I come from there are many more kinds of people and politics can be far more complicated than they are here, if only because there are so many more people and factions involved in it."

She sighed, glancing down for a second to avoid tripping over a tree root. "My captain has a brother, a man with whom he is very close. Tomorrow morning, that brother is to be executed in front of millions of people.

"Said brother is a highly esteemed member of one of the largest and most dangerous pirate crews in the world. The captain of his crew is name Whitebeard, a man that is known for treating each and every member of his crew as a son, and is known as the strongest man in the world."

Kakashi's eye narrowed, though it was imperceptible to the casual viewer.

Robin continued, either unaware of Kakashi's response, or uninterested in what she had noticed. "Whitebeard is undoubtedly going to arrive to attempt to put a stop to the execution. The government officials and all the high ranking marines present are going to do everything they can to go through with it. The Shichibukai, seven extremely powerful pirates that have turned to working for the government, have been called in to help the marines. My captain is most certainly going to try his own rescue attempt as well, and will no doubt pick up powerful allies in the process.

"The entire situation is a disaster waiting to happen." She stated, worry discretely lacing her tone.

"Maa…" Kakashi commented. "That does seem rather chaotic. How powerful did you say this Whitebeard man is?"

Robin's face darkened, though not in hatred, but in respect and some small amount of subtle fear. "Whitebeard is far past his prime, and I have heard that he spends a large amount of money on medicines to keep himself alive. Yet his still retains his title as the man closest to the One Piece and the strongest man in the world.

"Possessing the power of the Gura Gura no Mi (Tremor Tremor Fruit), Whitebeard holds within his hands the power to destroy entire islands in a single move, to create tsunamis with minimal effort, and even, if the rumors are to be believed, to crack the air itself as part of a major attack.

"_That_ is one of the main players in this game. Moreover, Vice Admiral Garp and Fleet Admiral Sengoku, and possibly the three Admirals as well, are all at or near his level of power in a one on one fight. Each of Whitebeard's Division Commanders is a good enough fighter that they could be considered viciously powerful captains in their own rights if they hadn't joined Whitebeard.

"Even further are all of Whitebeard's various allies on the pirate side, and the Shichibukai on the side of the World Government, who all have powers of an unkind nature themselves: the most powerful swordsman in the world; a giant that has the power to bring back the dead by stealing the shadows of others; a mechanical man that can repulse anything from himself, whether it has a physical body or not, supposedly even the soul, though those are but rumors; a man that can become sand and control the desert like a child does a block of wood.

"Believe me when I tell you that the number of obscenely powerful individuals involved in this battle likely number more than Konoha's entire population, civilian _and_ shinobi."

Kakashi would have liked to say that her explanation wasn't intimidating. He would have been lying.

A cold sweat dripped down his back as he wondered just what kind of place this woman had come from.

o.o.o.o.o

"You have to be kidding me." The Hokage deadpanned at the serious woman in front of him. Kakashi stood off to the side, looking vaguely uncomfortable.

"I'm afraid that the situation I just outlined is a very likely one." Robin stated with little inflection in her voice.

"And I don't suppose you have any proof?" Sarutobi asked, already knowing what the likely result would be.

"I'm afraid not."

"Of course not." Sarutobi muttered to himself. Kakashi looked on for a bit before finally speaking up.

"Maa… Hokage-sama? Robin-san? Would either of you mind explaining where this is supposedly happening?"

Robin glanced at the Hokage, who simply stared back at her. He puffed a bit of smoke out of his pipe. "I trust him, Nico-san. If you wish to tell him, I will not stop you, and I can promise that he won't tell anyone."

Robin's eyes narrowed at Kakashi, and then a disarming smile graced her face. "Tell me, Hatake-san, do you believe that you would be able to defeat me in a battle without any prior knowledge on how I fight?"

Kakashi blinked at the odd question, but answered anyways. "I cannot say, but I am ranked as one of the most dangerous shinobi in Konoha, so at the very least I believe that I would have a good chance, even if your confidence in your abilities is warranted."

"Mmm…" Robin made a small noise of understanding. She tilted her head towards Sarutobi. "And you, Hokage-sama? What do you believe the outcome of such a battle would be?"

The Sandaime blinked, but answered about a second later. "I would say that you are about even, under those circumstances. Kakashi would likely be able to defeat you if he was able to discover your power and your weaknesses before or in the course of the battle—the weaknesses that you have refused to elaborate on even to me."

Kakashi made no motion to show that he had heard, but the answer unnerved him, if only slightly. If this woman was as powerful as Sarutobi claimed—which begged a further question of just what her powers consisted of—and she was scared of these men that she claimed existed, then the situation that she had outlined would no doubt shake the world on a scale.

"Then I hope never to fight you, Hatake-san." Robin smiled at him again, but Kakashi was still wary. She continued as if she hadn't noticed his slight stiffening. "Where I come from, there are certain powers that one can come into possession of with the ingestion of a fruit, an Akuma no Mi (Devil Fruit). One person cannot eat two, of course, and everyone that eats one of the fruits gains weaknesses of their own and one overall weakness that applies to everyone. I have one myself, though I don't see the need to tell you of which one I have right now. Some people resent their powers, but most view the power they have gained as outweighing the weaknesses that they have fallen to. Many of the people that I mentioned as being involved in the chaos that is soon to hit have one, including, I'm afraid, Bartholomew Kuma."

Kakashi didn't quite understand who this was or what was so special about him, but he kept quiet and waited for Robin to explain.

"I mentioned him to you earlier when I was bringing up examples of the Shichibukai, though not by name. He is a cyborg, a man that has allowed himself to be experimented on and to become more machine than human." Kakashi paled a bit; it sounded a bit too much like the experiments that Orochimaru had performed. "He allowed the marines to do this to his body in order to prove that he was loyal to them, though it was all a ruse so that he could infiltrate it for the Revolutionaries."

Robin glanced down at her own hand and frowned, tracing something round lightly with her fingers. "He is more dangerous for a different reason, though. His Devil Fruit is an extremely powerful Paramecia type," Kakashi made a note to himself to ask what that classification was later. "The Nikyu Nikyu no Mi (Paw Paw Fruit) bestows upon the consumer the power to push away, to _repel_ anything they touch."

Kakashi frowned. "That doesn't sound very impressive… but judging from your expression and my own experience with eccentric ninja techniques, I'm assuming there's more to it."

Robin nodded, expression perturbed. "Undoubtedly. He can repel attacks that are sent at him so long as he is not caught off guard, can reflect them directly back on the attacker."

Kakashi nodded to himself; there were jutsu he could think of that were similar in nature, though most likely not as powerful as what Robin was describing.

"Neither is he limited to pushing away the purely physical." Kakashi's lone eye opened wide; a comment like that could mean anything. "I may not have seen it directly, but there was an incident when my crew first encountered him. I don't have the time to explain everything that happened, but I can tell you that the final result was Kuma pushing all the pain, fatigue, and damage that my captain had accrued thus far on the Grand Line," _The what?_ Kakashi wondered. "and pushed it all out of him. He then transferred all of that, which had left my captain nearly comatose, into the crew's first mate, who had accumulated a large amount of damage on his own. He barely survived."

Kakashi didn't have much time to mull over what she'd said, but what time he did have resulted in a reaction of awe. The power that could come from something like that… it alarmed him.

"The last part that I must tell you, and the most pertinent of the lot, is the Three Days' Travel. I don't know what it's really called, or if it even has a name, but I can give you a _very_ good description of what it does. He strikes his opponent with the pad mark on his palm, and sends them flying with his power. They fly for three days and nights, and land on the other side of the world, or anywhere he would like for them to land. I'm sure you are aware of the odd shape of the crater that Uzumaki-kun found me in?"

Kakashi paused for a second, as he had been ruminating on what the ramifications of such a power could be, and then his face cleared as he heard the question that Robin had tacked on to the end. "This Kuma man sent you here."

"Precisely." Robin nodded, but there wasn't a smile on her face. "However, the power apparently does not end there. I do not know if he has ever done something like this to someone before. I am likely one of only a few people that would be able to return home on their own power; the only other I can think of that may have been able to return is a former enemy who possessed the Doa Doa no Mi (Door Door Fruit)."

"And what is the extension of this power?" Kakashi asked, after it became apparent that Robin had managed to distract herself with distant memories… that, or she was trying to make a dramatic pause that was stretching out uncomfortably long to irritate him.

"The ability to send a person across the barrier between worlds." Robin said, completely serious.

"Ah." Kakashi took a second to try and sort things around in his broken brain to make sense of things, but eventually stopped trying. He fainted with his eyes open and sitting straight up.

"Is he alright?" Robin asked, voice bordering on amusement.

"He will be. He's rather resilient to mental trauma. It's just that he's more used to the tragic kind rather than the ridiculous sort."

Robin nodded slowly, but felt a niggling feeling in the back of her mind. _More used to tragedy…_

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi came by again the next day to take her to the forest again. Robin wasn't quite surprised at his willingness to watch her, despite his confusion at the mission the day before. After hearing what he had the day before, he'd been positively _eager_ to help her the second time, so long as she gave him a summary of what happened afterwards. Kakashi usually wasn't so interested in anything other than his Icha Icha, but the idea of a different world with a completely different set of rules and powers was one that made him a bit giddy.

"This should be good," Robin stopped in the middle of a clearing, one of the same ones that she'd been in the day before. After several minutes, she got up and started walking away from the village again.

"It seems that the transmission is on one of the groves over this way."

Kakashi just followed along, nose in book.

o.o.o.o.o

"Was that… Buggy?"

Kakashi looked down at her, "Hm? You say anything?"

Robin shook her head. "I just recognized a pirate clown that some members of my crew once met."

_Pirate clown?_ Kakashi really hoped that the idea of eccentricity correlating to power applied in Robin's world as well. It would be rather sad otherwise.

"And I believe I just saw Crocodile… Excuse me Hatake-san, I really need to focus now."

"Of course." Kakashi's nose was already back in his book.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin was not happy.

It wasn't necessarily that she hated all marines. But just as not all pirates were evil, not all marines were righteous. What she was seeing right now on the screens in Sabaody disgusted her.

Who cared that Ace was the son of Gol D. Rogers? What right did that give the marines to kill him just to make a point? To make a giant spectacle of it?

This wasn't even Absolute Justice, as they loved to claim. This was Absolute Politics. This was Absolute Hatred. This was Absolute Irrationality.

This was Absolute Chaos.

o.o.o.o.o

Sarutobi was only a little surprised to see that Robin and Kakashi had come back. What he was much more surprised with was the look of barely restrained rage that Robin was wearing under a fake half-smile. Kakashi was following her, nose in book, but he shot her worried and cautious glances while she was looking at Sarutobi.

"Well?" The Hokage asked when no information was forthcoming. Robin reached into her bag and pulled out a small notebook.

"I wrote down what I saw on the screens at Sabaody as best I could. Please allow me a short while longer to collect myself as you read." Robin was stiff. Her voice was light, pleasant… but there was an undertone that spoke of indescribable anger.

Sarutobi slowly reached out and took the notebook. "Has Kakashi read it?"

"Yes." And she didn't speak again. Kakashi tilted his head in the Hokage's direction.

"It's not fun." He left it at that.

The Hokage blinked at what they'd said and looked down at the neat writing in the notebook. He began to read.

o.o.o.o.o

"I can hardly pretend to understand the situation behind this." Sarutobi said, leaning back as he puffed on his pipe. "Even with what you've told us about your world, I find it difficult to follow everything that happened, even the purely political parts. Nor can I understand the basis behind some of these powers. You claim that this Mihawk person is the only Shichibukai that you are aware of that does not have a Devil Fruit Power, and yet you saw something that I can't imagine being possible without such a power or chakra. And the powers that I you mention as being demonstrated, not to mention these… 'Pacifista' that were on the battlefield…"

Robin nodded, her anger diminished from what it was before. "I can assure you that there are people that are capable of things that seem impossible at home without the aid of a Devil Fruit power."

Sarutobi flipped back through the notebook. "I'm assuming that you've got a request in addition to this."

"I do." Robin agreed. "I just want permission to visit the forest and get into contact with Shakky once a week or so in order to keep track of what is going on in my own world."

The Hokage sighed. "I suppose I could grant you that, though I don't have any ninja to spare to watch you cons-"

"I'll do it." Kakashi volunteered. Robin and the Hokage both turned to look at him.

"Why?" Sarutobi couldn't help but ask.

Kakashi did his little eye smile. "It's interesting. A different world, different powers, different politics… if I keep following her on these little excursions…"

He didn't need to finish his sentence.

o.o.o.o.o

"Robin-san!" Naruto ran to his door and pulled it open as he heard the apartment across from his being opened. "You're back!"

Robin smiled down at the boy. "Yes, I am. Is there something important that you need to tell me about?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not really. Sasuke came by to see if we were going to practice again, but he left after I told him you weren't here. What about you? Did you see anything awesome in the forest? Why were you there anyways?"

Robin stiffened slightly, but donned a strained smile nonetheless. "I would prefer not to talk about what I saw while I was there. I did see some things that were, as you put it, 'awesome,' but I also saw some things that were incredibly sad as well. If you could, please refrain from asking me again."

Naruto looked at her smile for a few seconds, and then nodded. "Okay."

"Now, would you like some tea?"

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I also addressed some concerns about Robin's fighting level here (also, please take note that while her chakra does 'twist' when she uses her DF, she doesn't actually expend any): it's in the Kakashi bit. The fights that I mentioned her winning in the first chapter were under the assumption that neither side knew anything about the other, or only knew that which was common knowledge to those near them (e.g. never look at Itachi's eyes).**

**And also: I am not writing this in response to anyone throwing a fit over OP/Naruto fics. If I do write things in response to something, it'll be as a parody (and all such stories will be labeled that way. Just look at my profile).**


	6. Birthday Blues

Robin had been surprised by the plan that Shakky and Rayleigh had suggested, but agreed to it if it would help Luffy and the crew. After the newspaper that signaled Luffy's acceptance of Rayleigh's training, she'd made arrangements to come and visit Shakky once every week or two in order to keep track of what was going on in he own world. Of course, that meant that just over a month had passed, so when Robin got her good news…

Naruto got his bad.

o.o.o.o.o

"Uzumaki-kun?"

Naruto jumped, spinning around. He was tense, his eyes were darting everywhere, and his breathing was somewhat panicked. He calmed down when he saw that it was just Robin.

"Ah. S-sorry." He glanced around him carefully, as if there was someone or something waiting for him around every corner.

"Is something wrong?" Robin sounded concerned, Naruto decided. He trusted her, almost as much as he trusted Ojii-san, or Iruka-sensei, or Teuchi-jii-san and Ayame-nee-chan. She was nice to him.

"Er… not really." He hedged. After all, nothing bad had happened _yet_.

"Uzumaki-kun…" Robin's voice held a note of warning that he usually only heard in Hokage-jii-san's voice when he'd pulled a really big prank and gotten into a lot of trouble with the ANBU. Naruto winced.

"It's my birthday tomorrow." He admitted.

Robin blinked, and then smiled down at Naruto. "Well, now, was that so hard?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head, resisting the urge to flinch. He stared at the ground as he explained to Robin what she couldn't possibly know because she wasn't originally from the village. "The villagers don't exactly like me. Sometimes old drunk guys come by during my birthday to trash my apartment. It's why I can't go to the Kyuubi festival."

He kept staring at the ground, but looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulders. Robin was smiling, but there was something sad behind her smile. "Ah. I see. Would you like me to ask Hokage-sama if you could sleep on my couch until after the villagers are no longer up in arms?"

Naruto stared up at her for a few seconds, before a grin split his face. "Of course, dattebayo!"

o.o.o.o.o

Robin quietly closed the door to her room after making sure that Naruto was safely ensconced on the couch, and the doors to both his apartment and hers locked tight. She sighed to herself as she leaned against the wall to the room, reaching up one hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. _Children should not have to deal with such hatred._

As she prepared herself for bed, she remembered what Sarutobi had told her about Naruto being informed about the Kyuubi. Only three months were left until he was set to graduate from the Academy, only three months until his entire world view might be shattered, only three months until he understood.

Robin wondered if she would have liked it better if she'd received the treatment Naruto had as a child, and even as an adult, if she had not understood why. They said that ignorance is bliss, but ignorance would have likely lead to her doom if she had been unaware of her Devil Fruit, maybe less so if she had simply not understood the stigma that the citizens of Ohara had associated with her power. She probably would have grown to hate the world as much as some people did, like the Fishman that had kept Nami under his control for ten years. She found it hard to believe that she could have ended up anywhere near as cheerful-seeming and friendly as Naruto, even if some of his cheeriness was forced, even if some of his happiness was a mask.

She slipped under the covers, momentarily growing a few eyes to check that the area was clear and safe, and lay back on her pillow.

Robin hoped Naruto would take it well.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto pulled Sasuke into Robin's apartment the next day after school when he came by. Somehow, the three of them had set up a schedule where the two boys would come by Robin's apartment several times a week to have tea and, to Sasuke's astonishment, rather helpful taijutsu practice. They had asked her a few times to help out with their other work, but she couldn't help much when it came to genjutsu or ninjutsu. Sasuke had decided, belatedly, that Robin was scary enough without it. Naruto had just asked him when he had ever even had doubts. The boys still fought and argued constantly, though.

Robin had also taken to looking over their written work for grammatical mistakes or incorrectly written characters, but she also enjoyed reading their history essays an inordinate amount. It mystified them, but she simply told them, "You can learn much by what has happened in the past. Do not make the same mistakes as those that came before you."

Naruto had pouted for a few minutes as he kept on working, but Sasuke had taken to listening to her words and looking for hidden meaning in what she said. He could tell, if only barely, that Robin had experienced such before. She was speaking from experience, even if it was not quite the way that she meant for them to do so.

Sasuke was used to simply being allowed inside with a smile from Robin and a childish taunt from Naruto. Being dragged in with half-articulated gibberish from Naruto was… disorienting.

"Get in, get in, quick! Hope they don't see you you might live longer and you better not fall into one of the traps on my door oh no what if they trapped Robin's door too gotta go tell her—"

He stopped gabbling when Sasuke's fist caught him in the gut, and he fell to the ground wheezing.

"Dobe. Shut up. Calm down. And then tell me why you're so worried. _Slowly_." Sasuke ordered.

Naruto stopped gasping for breath and glared up at his dark-haired classmate. "Teme." He spat after he was no longer winded. "Today is my birthday, and we have to take precautions so that I don't have to spend hours unnecessarily running from drunk villagers who hate me because I was born during the Kyuubi attack."

Sasuke blinked, but in his shock only latched onto one thing. "Since when do you know words like precautions and unnecessarily?"

Naruto, in a manner rather uncharacteristic of him considering he usually wouldn't react so violently, slapped Sasuke, his face burning an angry red as he did so. "Don't you get it? People might be trying to kill me today! I'm just lucky that Robin's here and that Ojii-san promised that the ANBU guys would be watching me in addition to all the civilians on the streets."

"But why?"

"I don't know! It's probably because my birthday's on the same day as the Kyuubi attack but—" Naruto stopped at the look on Sasuke's face. "What?"

"Today's your birthday?" Sasuke asked incredulously.

"Yeah…" Naruto answered slowly and hesitantly.

"You were born during the actual Kyuubi attack?" Sasuke clarified.

"Uh-huh…" Naruto nodded, ready to bolt if Sasuke acted like almost everyone else had.

Sasuke hit the back of Naruto's head. "Why didn't you tell me, idiot?"

"Huh?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head, staring at the peeved look on Sasuke's face. Both of them were unaware of the eyes and ears observing them from the ceiling.

"Firstly, if you're treated as badly as you claim, I would have let you stay at the compound. It's empty, and Kami knows I owe you for the number of times you've helped me escape the fangirls, especially in the past month." Sasuke was somewhat rambling, and thus did not notice the surprise and faint hope on Naruto's face. In her bedroom, Robin smiled.

"Second…" Sasuke rounded on Naruto, his voice soft but still holding a certain force behind it, possibly… anger? "You're supposed to tell people when it's your birthday if you know them well! Even I know that, and I eschew human contact any chance I get!"

Naruto stared at him for a few seconds before retaliating. "Every instance involving my birthday before this has ended in disaster unless it involves Hokage-jii-san, or Iruka-sensei, or Teuchi-jii-san and Ayame-nee-san! If I mention it's my birthday—" Sasuke cut him off again.

"Dobe, if I didn't care about Robin-san's weird powers or the fact that she was a pirate, and I didn't complain when I found out your apartment was a complete dump and that the reason you did so badly was because of sabotage and the fact that you could barely read, why would I care that your birthday was on the day of the Kyuubi attack? You were a few hours old; it's not like you actually had anything to do with it." Sasuke stared at Naruto with a rather deadpan expression. Naruto stared back incredulously.

"You honestly don't care?" There was an edge of hope to his voice.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "I care that you didn't _tell_ me."

Naruto's hopeful expression was beginning to form cracks, though Sasuke didn't quite notice. He continued on.

"Dobe, you and Robin-san are currently the only human contact I voluntarily put up with outside the Academy. I'm pretty sure that that means I was obliged to get you some sort of birthday gift, even if it was the small kind that coworkers give each other or something." He waved his hand flippantly at the last part, and some of his words were tinged with bitter sarcasm.

Naruto stared at him, a quizzical look adorning his face. "Birthday gift?"

Sasuke looked at him for a few seconds, almost outraged, though an Uchiha would never show such an emotion so blatantly, of course. "You've never had a birthday gift before?"

The whiskered blonde tilted his head to the side a bit. "Um… I think Hokage-jii-san gave me some extra weapons a couple times, and Teuchi-jii-san lets me have a few free bowls of Ramen. Iruka-sensei was at home with a cold last year, though, and he was kind of distant from me before then. Do most people get presents on their birthdays?"

Sasuke's lower left eyelid twitched. "Are you serious?"

Naruto blinked owlishly. "Yes?"

Sasuke slammed the palm of his hand into his forehead. "Dobe…"

Naruto stared at him for a few seconds, and then whipped his head around. "I hear footsteps. And they're too loud and uneven to be a shinobi's…" He began to slink towards the couch. "Hide, teme. Hide."

Sasuke was unnerved, but followed instructions. He hid behind the couch with Naruto, confused until he heard the drunken and slurred conversation taking place outside.

(For the reader's, and author's, convenience, the following conversation will be translated from drunken slur to normal dialogue)

"You got the spray paint?"

"Yeah, what are we gonna write on the demon's door?"

Naruto flinched, and Sasuke shot him a questioning look. The blonde just shook his head, silently asking for Sasuke to just ignore what he was about to hear.

"How about…" And so the conversation went on. By the end, after much sloshing of paint, alcohol, and insults, the three drunken men had left. Sasuke was staring blankly at the wall.

"They do this just because of when your birthday is?" His voice was breathless and disbelieving, a slight note of disgust and horror entering his tone.

"Probably." Naruto rested his chin on his knees, hugged to his chest. "Can't think of any other reason."

Sasuke stared at him for a few seconds. On the other side of her bedroom door, Robin waited in anticipation, already planning to clean what had been written on Naruto's door.

"C'mon dobe." Sasuke lurched to his feet, and held out a hand to help Naruto up.

"Wha-?"

"It's your birthday, isn't it?" Sasuke muttered irritably. "I'll go ahead and pay for all the ramen you can eat at that stand you like as a gift, even if it will set me back a bit. Besides, if I'm with you, the villagers will probably stay away."

Naruto looked at the hand that was still reaching towards him, before grinning shyly, taking hold of Sasuke's hand, and hauling himself up. He stood there awkwardly for a second before finally breaking the silence.

"Thanks, Uchiha."

"You're welcome." The words sounded dusty and like they weren't used often.

"So does this mean we're friends?"

"Hn."

"I'll take that as a yes."

Robin smiled behind her door.


	7. The Stealing of the Scroll

A/N- I figured I should mention this before I start writing. Something really specific: I usually don't use parentheses. I use double-dashes most of the time, but I use parentheses instead when I'm writing Naruto's thoughts in a sort of running commentary. It's kind of like Luffy speaking with katakana.

Also, this story involves both 'For Want of a Nail' and 'In Spite of a Nail.' Some things, like Naruto's graduation, are left mostly alone. Others, like *spoiler*, will be changed rather drastically.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin, to Naruto's initial dismay, wasn't able to come to school to greet him on the day of his exam. He felt faintly grateful that she wasn't there to be disappointed in him immediately (like Iruka-sensei was, like Ojii-san would, like Ayame-nee-chan and Teuchi-jii-san might be), and was off tracking events in her own world that she needed to know about (but why were these "Admirals" fighting each other? Was a Fleet Admiral like a Kage? Did the strongest one get the position? Was that why they wanted to fight each other?). She wasn't here to see him be the dead last that everyone called him. Even with Sasuke-teme and Robin-san helping him with his taijutsu and some of his written work and stuff. Even with Sasuke giving him hints about using jutsu, hints that may have been Uchiha-exclusive before 'the incident that Sasuke refused to talk about no matter how much I badgered him before he told me to leave it alone like he does the reasons for my pranks other than humor.'

A pair of feet landed ninja-lightly in front of him, and a shadow fell upon him. Naruto looked up from the ground, still holding on to the rope from the swing.

"Mizuki-sensei?"

o.o.o.o.o

Robin walked back to Konohagakure no Sato, bag on her back and being trailed by Kakashi. By now, the Hokage was willing to send just a genin team after her, headed by a… 'youthful' man who was apparently extremely loyal to Konoha, and a good friend of Kakashi's. Kakashi had mentioned to him in passing, rather vaguely, the 'C-rank' that consisted of tracking Robin's movements through the forest, adding in a small emphasis on how necessary it was to have both a keen sense of attention and the ability to keep silent and unnoticeable in order not to distract the woman. Maito Gai, of course, had decided that it was the perfect kind of mission to assign to his students when they were tired of D-ranks but he didn't think it was time for another mission of a much higher level yet.

The mini-Gai had had a small modicum of trouble keeping quiet, but even he had eventually managed to settle down and keep track of the woman that they had been ordered to watch on her outings for information, though even Neji's magic eyes could not discern how she gathered her information. He didn't dare take a peek at her notebook, no matter how interested he was. TenTen had felt similarly to the boys on one thing, up until there was an incident. That thing they agreed on was that the 'C-rank' was little more than a joke, and that there wasn't any true reason behind following this woman, that she wasn't in any real danger, and apparently unlikely to sell secrets to the enemy.

They had soon been proven wrong, but that's a story for a later time.

As it was now, this was Kakashi's last day before being saddled with a genin team, so he'd decided to offer to follow her on this 'special' outing to find a newspaper that explained the outcomes of a rather important battle being fought among two of the strongest Marines alive.

The worse of the two, at least in morals, had won.

"How badly is this going to affect your crew's plans?" Kakashi asked from the tree branch he was walking on upside down. He'd started showing off shinobi skills to Robin in an attempt to convince her to learn some lesser ones, and to later convince her to join Konoha. So far, his only sign of success was some mild interest she had shown when he'd mentioned water-walking. He supposed that it would be pragmatic for a pirate to be able to do such a thing.

Robin walked on with a pensive expression remaining on her face as it had for several hours. "It shouldn't be too bad. It's not like we could have prevented it in the first place, but I will admit that dealing with the Marines may be harder now than it would have been had Admiral Aokiji won the battle and become Fleet Admiral. However, the battle also resulted in Aokiji leaving the Marines, so they have lost one of their best fighters."

"And your world's geo-political scene?"

Robin shrugged. "It's impossible to predict. Things always happen oddly in my world; nothing occurs the way you expect it to, especially where the Grand Line is concerned. The politics are only slightly more predictable than the weather, and finding someone as attuned to politics as Nami-san is to the atmosphere would be very difficult indeed."

"Hmm… may I ask your personal expectations?" Kakashi asked, nose buried in his favorite orange book. Robin nodded slightly, more to herself than to her Jounin escort.

"The Marines are going to begin being more brutal and will attempt to arrest people more often. However, they will also be more sparsely distributed, due to the number of Marines that died in the Marineford Battle. Many young men and women that would have otherwise attempted to join the Marines will likely be off-put by all of the death and brutality displayed by both the Marines' side of the war and the pirates'. Moreover, there will definitely be some chaos around the islands that were under Whitebeard's protection, due to his death a month ago; other pirates will choose to either plunder them or take them as their own, if they are brave enough to attempt either. As I said, though, it is unlikely that that will fully be the case. There is always an unknown, always a wildcard to throw a wrench into the plans. "

Kakashi nodded. Though Robin's world had very different politics and powers from his own, there was still some base logic to be followed here and there. Robin's outline, though simple, displayed a sense of knowledge and forethought that he would have expect from a politician, not a pirate.

As they approached the gates, late as they were—and they were very late, considering that Robin had to wait until nightfall for news of the results of the battle to finally reach Sabaody, all the way from Marines situated near a virulent island in the New World called Punk Hazard—they heard a great clamor rising through the streets.

"The demon has stolen the Scroll of Forbidden Techniques!"

"We have to find the demon brat!"

Robin and Kakashi glanced at each other before quickly walking over to Izumo and Kotetsu at the gate.

"What happened, Izumo?" Kakashi's question was an order, not a request. Izumo complied, though whether it was due to fear or due to a desire to gossip is up for debate.

It was probably both.

"Uzumaki stole the Scroll from the Hokage's office after giving Hokage-sama a giant nosebleed with some perverted henge. Everyone's running all over the place to find him, now." Izumo rambled off quickly.

"Can't find him though, even though he's wearing that same orange jumpsuit he always does and even the ANBU are looking for him. Kid's got some good stealth; it makes you wonder what it was that made him fail the Academy test." Kotetsu added in.

"He failed the academy test?" Kakashi questioned, a slightly worried expression crossing his face, though there was a bit of faint sadness behind it as well. Robin kept her expression as blank as she could.

"Yeah. People are saying that it finally pushed him over the edge or something." Izumo was clearly relishing in what he was saying, though Kakashi, as he would later tell Robin, knew that it was just because the man was a gossip of the highest order, at least among the men, second only to the Yamanaka.

"Robin-san." Kakashi's voice was calm, and Robin heard the question inside it.

"Hai, Hatake-san." The two walked past Izumo and Kotetsu, who were rather confused at the calm and silent exchange beneath the repetition of one another's names, and into the village.

o.o.o.o.o

"Did you know too?" Naruto was looking down into his tea as he sat on Robin's couch the next day, having been assigned his team, one which he was rather pleased with. Seeing his expression, however, one wouldn't guess.

"Know what?" Robin sipped her tea, voice quiet and coaxing.

Naruto bounced his feet off the lower parts of the couch a few times. He whispered. "Did you know about the Kyuubi?"

Robin set her tea down and leaned forward to rest her chin on her hand, elbow on her knee. "That it was sealed inside you? Yes."

"But… you'd never even been in the village before I found you in that crater! And people aren't allowed to talk about it! So how—" A hand sprouted from his chest and covered his mouth.

"I have ears everywhere, Uzumaki-kun. I am well-versed in gathering information, and I have been for a long time." Naruto calmed down. "Despite this, I did not learn through that method."

Naruto's eyes widened a bit, and he raised a hand as if in class, asking permission to talk again. The hand disappeared. "Then how?"

Robin looked directly at him. "The Hokage told me. I went through a similar experience when I was younger, though I was aware of why the people of my own village disliked me."

Naruto stared at her. "Really?"

Robin scratched the back of her head, acting embarrassed even though she wasn't. It was fun to act, though, to put on a silly, sheepish little grin for a few seconds. "I may have also threatened to break his neck and spine if he didn't tell me."

Naruto's eyes bugged out and he stared at her with his mouth open. "Wha-?" He croaked.

Robin smiled benignly at him, mentally patting herself on the back and chuckling at his shocked expression. "It's alright. It's all water under the bridge between Hokage-sama and me now. Was there something else you wished to ask?"

"A-ano…" Naruto scrambled to gather his thoughts. "What did you mean, you went through something similar?"

Robin's smile left her face and a conserved and pensive expression took its place. "Where to begin…"

Naruto leaned forward.

"I grew up on an island called Ohara. It was an island famous for its archeologists. My mother was considered a genius among them, and left for an expedition when I was two years old." Robin began, promising to herself that she would explain about the poneglyphs to him at a later date, when it wouldn't be so confusing to just add to a story.

"I was taken in by my uncle and his wife. My uncle was rather ignorant of me, preferring to let me do as I was wont to do and only keep an eye on me peripherally. His wife and daughter, however, saw me as a servant and a means to cheap labor. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, but it was far from ideal." She looked him straight in the eyes, willing him to understand that what her family had done wasn't that bad, and that she only added it for the sake of the story. He seemed to understand, but Robin wasn't quite sure. She ploughed ahead anyway.

"When I was four, I ate an Akuma no Mi." Naruto perked up at this. The cool power! "It tasted terrible and looked odd, but I thought it was pretty, and ate it anyway because I was still young and naïve.

"The people living on Ohara thought me a freak because of my newfound power." Naruto's jaw dropped. But it was so cool! Robin smiled sadly and continued. "I suffered similar treatment to what you go through during the next four years. The other children would call me a monster, oftentimes throwing rocks at me as a game for them while I was just reading on a boulder or walking down the street. When I returned fire, using as many arms as necessary, they ran to their mothers and fathers, who scolded me for attacking their children for no reason, or so they believed. I did have friends in the archeologists at the Tree of Knowledge, but they banned me from studying something that I wanted to study, for my own safety.

"There was an… incident, when I was eight years old, and I was forced to leave Ohara. The World Government had ordered an island-wide destruction because the archeologists at the Tree of Knowledge had been studying forbidden information, but ended up causing an island-wide massacre instead. I was the only survivor from the entire island. The fact that I was the last person left alive that could read the language that they had forbidden the archeologists from studying meant that they were soon howling for my arrest.

"I soon found wanted posters everywhere I went that displayed a ridiculously large bounty, especially for an eight-year-old girl. The marines lied, claiming that my bounty was so high because I had sunken six battleships, which I had not. I spent the next twenty years running, always having to watch my back, and the lies that the marines had spread made people start calling me a demon, a witch, a monster. I had the entire world after me because of a lie. I must admit, though, I do feel more partial to the epithet that was on my bounty poster now than I have until recently; it does sound rather intimidating, I suppose, and it is what I would prefer show up if I ever got a bounty of any sort here…"

"What is it?" Naruto asked, nearly breathless. His tea lay forgotten on the table, nearly cold by then.

Robin smiled at him, glad that she had told him her story. It may not have correlated perfectly, but he now knew that he had a friend, though she was much older than him, that understood his situation. She had lived through it and come out as wonderful and powerful as she had, so why wouldn't he be able to become Hokage?

"They called me the Devil's Child."

o.o.o.o.o

"Robin-san, we passed our new Jounin-sensei's test! We're real genin now!" Naruto rushed in through the door, yelling his head off. Sasuke came in soon after, shaking his head with a small frown on his face. Trailing in after them rather slowly was a pink-haired girl who seemed to be trying to stay as close to the Uchiha as possible.

"Oh, and this is our teammate, Haruno Sakura!" Robin raised an eyebrow at that; this was the girl Naruto seemed so infatuated with? She wasn't particularly beautiful, but she was rather pretty nonetheless, with hair that was rather unique in color in this world. The poor girl looked a bit scared right that moment, though.

"Ohayo, Nico-san." Her voice shook as she bowed to Robin. What with the comments that Naruto and occasionally Sasuke made as they were coming here after they'd invited her, she could only presume that the woman was extremely dangerous and worthy of a modicum of respect that was as much as what they should give Kakashi-sensei, even if they didn't. Of course, there was also the fact that Sasuke seemed to respect her despite the fact that, from what Sakura could gather from all the chatter, the woman was not a ninja in the slightest.

"It's nice to meet you, Haruno-chan. Did you come for tea like the boys do?" Robin asked kindly.

Sakura turned towards Sasuke, hearts—which reminded Robin of a certain swirly-eye-browed chef—appearing in her eyes as she did so.

"Hn." The noise was just approving enough to make a decent answer out of.

"That's a yes, Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled again.

"By the way, Uzumaki-kun, you never did finish telling me who your Jounin-sensei is."

Naruto opened his mouth to reply, an angry look already forming on his face, but was cut off by a lazy noise.

"Yo." And there, perched on the windowsill, reading his orange book, was Hatake Kakashi, in all his poofy, silver haired glory. The three students were about to comment on him showing up, but Robin beat them to it.

"Ah, Hatake-san, I didn't realize that you would be training them. Would you like some tea?"

_They know each other?_ Ran the thoughts of three genin.

"Don't mind if I do."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I have to ask: did you like how I handled the conversation between Naruto and Robin? In my opinion, "Devil's Child" is a pretty awesome nickname for a pirate. Maybe she hated it when she was younger, but I can imagine her enjoying it a bit once she started getting a bit too old to be called a child anymore, if for no other reason.**

**Review! Ja ne!**


	8. Interlude 1

Team Seven had settled into a comfortable routine. Four days a week they would simply train, even if Kakashi was ridiculously late, and two days a week they would go out and do D-ranks missions. One day a week, they got off to do whatever it was that they wanted to do. And somehow, Sakura had slid into Naruto and Sasuke's habit of visiting Robin for tea after practice, though they rarely did their old taijutsu sessions in her apartment anymore, tuckered out as they were from what they were doing for training with Kakashi, and enjoying their one day off.

Right now, however, the story is not focused on Team Seven. Nor is it focused on the ever-knowing Robin, or at least it shouldn't be. This chapter is focused on others and their reactions to the odd, odd woman that had come to stay in Konoha.

o.o.o.o.o

Sarutobi was an old man. He was Hokage, and had barely had a few years of peace when Minato had taken over before he was thrust back into the seat during the paperwork fiasco that was the Kyuubi attack. He was old and experienced, and even he barely knew how to deal with the current situation. A female pirate had come from a different world, and had no ill intentions when she came. She may have developed some, considering her reaction upon learning of Naruto's treatment at the hands of the villagers, but appeared to prefer keeping to herself. She'd threatened Sarutobi's life, or at least attempted to, but he'd let that slide considering that a) no one else was in the room so they didn't try to take her in for questioning, and b) she'd done so for Naruto's sake, and understood to some extent what he went through. Sarutobi would still keep a close eye on her, but she had his approval.

He looked down at the reports left by whoever it was that tracked her through the forest on her information gathering escapades every Saturday this time. There had been an incident once where she'd been walked to the hospital by Team Gai, but that had blown over rather quickly. Today, Kakashi had given his genin an off day and joined her, hoping that something interesting would happen. The Hokage found the information that Robin brought back interesting and used Robin's own reports as payment, hoping that she would be able to bring back more than just information one day, or even just information that could be used to replicate the weapons in her world. The ones she described, if they could even get just the blueprints, would possibly put Konoha ahead of Snow Country in terms of weapons' technology.

However, she mostly brought back information on political changes—which, as interesting as they were, had absolutely no impact on Konoha—as she did some information on advancements in her world's technological progressions, oddly concentrated on something called Pacifistas. Sarutobi figured that the closest anyone in the elemental countries, other than Snow, would get to a cyborg was modifying themselves with puppet parts. For the time being, Robin's outings were useful, and extremely interesting, but did little to aid Konoha. Sarutobi just hoped the reports would become more helpful, before people began to question Robin's motives and his own acceptance.

o.o.o.o.o

Asuma and Kurenai had each received their own teams, of course. Their main connections to the woman that was the current main topic of gossip were their own teams, all six of whom knew and had been classmates with both the Uzumaki and the Uchiha, who were known to associate with that woman, and before they'd gotten their teams, Kakashi.

Kakashi, of course, gave away nothing; he just smiled oddly with his lone eye when he was asked, and dodged questions with ease and subtlety. The genin of Team Seven kept mum, refusing to say anything that Robin hadn't explicitly given them permission to say. Even when they did give out information, it was twisted and in riddles, which all the shinobi could see was completely intentional. A mischievous smirk on the Jinchuuriki's face, a smug smirk threatening to break out on the face of the last Uchiha, and a small and sadistic smile crossing that of the first-generation girl with pink hair all told the ninja exactly what the secondary driving motive behind their silence was. It was utterly vexing.

Neither Asuma nor Kurenai really had much of a clue about the woman. They had each met her around the village several times, and Kurenai had even been sent out once to follow the woman during a mid-week visit to the forest, when Kakashi hadn't been available. Robin, Kurenai had decided, was as confusing as any ninja, despite not being one, and her odd habit of smiling knowingly at everyone that she spoke with, even if there seemed to be no reason to do so, nothing to smile at was unsettling. It was especially so when paired with her disturbingly morbid sense of humor.

Asuma had managed to get some information out of Kakashi, but not much. Kakashi had mentioned that the woman, while not a ninja, was among the most powerful people he'd met, and definitely more powerful than any other non-ninja he'd ever met. She had a power, but what it was, not even Kakashi knew, or at least claimed he didn't.

Asuma had to deal with complaints from Ino about Sakura being on a team with "Sasuke-kun" at first, and then whining even more because the pink-haired girl was so close to such a mother-load of possible gossip, and, _gasp, refused to share!_ How come forehead girl _wouldn't dish_? Why wouldn't she _spill_? How rude, _sniff_.

It was tiring. Of course, Chouji didn't really care, and the whole thing didn't interest Shikamaru enough for him to put in enough interest to actually be noticeable to any but the most observant, so there was some small bit of reprieve there.

Kurenai, on the other hand, just had to deal with some offhand comments here and there. Hinata still blushed whenever Naruto was mentioned and barely talked out of shyness, though she mentioned that she'd heard some of her family members talking about how Robin's chakra was a bit oddly colored, which she'd confirmed for herself once when she accidentally ran into *cough*stalked*cough* Naruto. Shino barely talked at all either, but he did mention once or twice that his Kikaichuu were reacting to Robin's chakra rather oddly. Kiba thought she smelled very salty, and eventually was told by his sister that what he smelled was the ocean, though Hana couldn't tell how the scent of the sea was being renewed, but she did recognize it from a few missions she'd had outside the village. From all this, the team, Kurenai included, realized that there was most definitely something up with the woman's chakra, especially since no one ever confessed to having seen her do anything with her admittedly large stores. Hinata had mentioned, though, that Neji had once commented within earshot of her that Robin's chakra had frequently twisted around itself without actually being used up while he had tracked her through the forest on a C-rank with his team once.

Asuma just thought that Kurenai was lucky that her team was actually being somewhat productive, and envied her for it.

o.o.o.o.o

Gai had thought the C-rank he'd been given for his team would be dull and uneventful, just good enough to be considered a C-rank without putting his students in undue danger. He had been wrong. He somehow managed to bring them on the one outing during which the woman had actually done something worth note, according to Kakashi.

Flashback:

They'd been at this for hours now. Robin never did anything other than stand or sit there with her arms crossed and eyes closed, moving a couple hundred meters here and there every once in a while, and writing things down now and again. It drove the team, or at least Neji and TenTen, mad with confusion. Neji couldn't tell what she was doing even with his Byakugan, and it would have been a true invasion of privacy, past the confines of the mission boundaries, to attempt to read what she'd written without either her approval or the Hokage's. Lee was as enthusiastic as he always was, and took it as a test in silence, struggling with himself so that he wouldn't distract Robin; Robin herself simply smiled in knowing amusement whenever she heard the little scuffling noises that gave away the genin, and ignored the noise.

So had the hours passed, with Neji and TenTen growing increasingly annoyed, Lee growing increasingly confused, and Gai growing increasingly intrigued in the bland occurrences. The frustration on Neji and TenTen's parts ended with a gasp.

The gasp had come from the middle of the clearing. For a few minutes beforehand, a focused frown had graced Robin's face, getting the attention of the three genin with little to do. The gasp had heralded a gash that was crossing her exposed forearm a second later, one that had appeared without any visible cause. All four members of Team Gai had jumped down at that, Neji automatically activating his Byakugan to detect the attackers. No one appeared to his advanced vision, however.

"Nico-san? Do you require medical attention?" Gai asked, his voice uncharacteristically serious."

"No, not yet." Robin raised her arms back up to her shoulders shakily, a determined look on her face. "I'm caught up in something a little more important than simple information gathering right now. Please make an attempt to make no noise to distract me during the next several minutes or more."

Gai nodded to his students, who took up their positions around Robin again, completely silent.

The next several minutes passed in tense silence, as Robin muttered under her breath and made small adjustments to her posture. A strangled yelp alerted them to the fact that something a little more serious had happened. Neji, Lee, and TenTen kept their places in a defensive position, Neji's eyes widening just a bit as he saw the second wound that had appeared, in Robin's forearm again. Gai moved over to Robin to question after her health.

"Nico-san, do you know the cause of the injury?" Gai asked as he pulled out a roll of bandages from a side pack on his belt.

Robin's eyes remained closed even as she nodded. "Bullet wound. Flintlock pistol, so it's not as serious as it could have been. I need some more time. I can't stop yet. Sabotaging the Auction house comes first."

Gai ignored what she'd said about sabotage and continued to bandage the wound, odd as it was. It was very serious, going in one side of her arm and out the other. It took another two minutes and thirty seven seconds, though no one tracked the time, for another wound to appear, this time in her opposite hand. It went in through the palm, destroyed a bone in her hand or two, and then out through the back of her hand. A hole also appeared, though no one noticed until later, that went through Robin's ear.

"Ch-!" Robin hissed as the wounds made themselves known, and buckled down on her efforts. A bullet even managed to lodge itself in her leg, from a kick she had attempted to do on a marine. Unbeknownst to the nearby shinobi, Robin was caught up in a vicious rebellion of slaves, trying to prevent the Human Auction House from being rebuilt. Keimi in particular had been captured again, and was the first one that Robin freed, easily stealing the key to the slave collar that had been kept in the pocket of an overly exorbitant merchant. Five minutes later, she finally withdrew, unable to continue aiding the escapees, and having made sure that anyone she knew personally that was involved was safe and out of the way if they were incapable of fighting. She'd made comments, she knew, that would surely unnerve the genin around her.

"Nico-san?" A slightly subdued young voice asked. "Do you require aid to return to Konoha?"

Robin glanced up from where Gai was wrapping her arm to stare into Lee's worried eyes. "Aa. That would be much appreciated."

"Yosh! I shall carry you back the entire way to Konohagakure, and if I cannot, I shall run fifty laps around the village!" Lee's enthusiasm returned in a rush, and he punched the air, after which he grinned at her, teeth glinting, in the Good Gai pose.

Robin didn't sweatdrop, as most people would upon seeing such a sight. She simply smiled at him and nodded. "Thank you, Rock-kun."

Gai stood up, giving Robin a thumbs up of his own. "Yosh! My most youthful bindings should prevent you from losing too much blood upon our return to Konoha. Do you wish to leave?"

Robin nodded, and the group set off.

On their way back, Lee chattered non-stop, with Gai throwing in his own contributions every once in a while; Robin nodded along to their conversation with an amused smile, as usual. Neji and TenTen hung back, and after they were sure that none of the others were listening to them, began their own conversation.

"Well?" TenTen asked, eyes still on the people in front of her. "Did you see anything? Not to mention what she was muttering about with the sabotage of some auction house."

Neji frowned, blank eyes staring forward. "Some. I couldn't see what it was that was hurting her, but I did see something interesting about the wound in her leg."

"And?"

Neji shook his head, looking over at her. "Her chakra was doing a lot of those weird twists, and one of them was focused around her left leg. When that wound occurred, it showed up, but a couple seconds later, she let go of the twist. After she did, a spherical metal ball with no evidence of chakra tampering showed up at the end of the wound."

"A metal ball? I can't think of any weapons that shoot spherical projectiles… How big was it? How deep?" TenTen turned to look at him, eyes asking a dozen questions.

Neji shrugged, looking at the sky in thought. "Maybe a centimeter and a half across? About ten or eleven deep diagonally?"

TenTen frowned, looking down at her hands to try and get an approximation of the sizes. "Are you sure? There aren't any weapons that work like that. Nothing with projectiles that are that small and that shape. And to make its way so deep into her leg… The weapon that made it must have been—"

"A bullet, from an older model of a flintlock pistol. If it were one of the modern ones, I have no doubt that it would have penetrated much deeper."

Both Neji and TenTen froze and looked over to see Lee next to them with Robin slung over his shoulder. While Lee was still talking with Gai, who was on his other side, Robin was looking directly at the two genin that had been talking about her.

"When did you—?" TenTen gasped, and Neji glared over at Lee. The lack of pupils made his glare rather more intimidating than most peoples'.

"Rather recently. It's good to see that you trust each other enough to discuss an enigma such as myself without fear of the other scoffing at your theories."

They nodded; TenTen looked fearful, and Neji guarded. Robin smiled at them, ignoring a loud yell that Lee had let out as he made to comment on something Gai had said.

"Er, Robin-san?" TenTen started out slowly, gaining some small amount of courage when she received an encouraging nod in response. "What is a bullet?"

Robin tilted her head a bit on the hand that held it up on Lee's back. "Ah, that's a rather difficult question to answer. A bullet is a small metal sphere, such as the one that you mentioned being lodged in my leg. Thank you for mentioning that, by the way; this will be useful information for the doctors. However, I assume you are asking just how it is used."

TenTen nodded and Neji rolled his eyes, though he did feel some small amount of pride from Robin's acknowledgment. Robin smiled at them, though there was something supremely amused about it, kind as it was. "A flintlock pistol is much more complicated than I will explain, but it fundamentally consists of a long, hollow cylinder that is open on one end. The bullet is inserted into the closed end, with a modicum of gun powder. The gun powder is lit with a small spark from pieces of metal striking one another, and propels the bullet down the chamber at faster speeds than it could achieve simply being thrown by the average human. Even a civilian would be able to use one, though I can't say much as to what their aim would be like."

TenTen stared at her, and Neji glanced out of the corner of his eye. "Gunpowder?"

Robin blinked in mild surprise before answering. "I suppose you could refer to them as very finely ground explosives. It is a very fine black powder, and extremely dangerous."

TenTen stared at her for a few more seconds, and a grin slowly grew on her face. Neji took a discreet step away from her, and Robin simply smiled. The bun-haired girl was excited now. "Is there a way to make this powder?"

"I believe there is a formula for its creation, yes. I could find it for you during my next visit for information." Robin smiled. "But I believe that you were also discussing why I was injured in the first place, correct?"

Neji and TenTen nodded, now a bit more nervous, though it barely showed with Neji, and barely more with TenTen. Robin nodded. "What did you hear me say?"

The two genin glanced at one another. Neji spoke next, "You said something about sabotaging a place called the Auction House. Nothing else was really all that specific, other than needing more time."

Robin nodded, the smile sliding off her face. "Yes, that would be accurate, I suppose. However, the full name of the building I was sabotaging the construction of is somewhat longer." She glanced over, aware that even Lee and Gai had quieted down to hear.

"Can I trust to you keep this among yourselves and your reports only?" All she got in response was four nods, all intent on hearing what she had to say.

She turned her head to look back down the way they'd come, chin still propped up on her less maligned hand. "The Marines call it the Public Employment Security Office. It is a euphemism for what it truly is."

The shinobi waited with baited breath. "Its true name is the Human Auctioning House."

It took several seconds for it to sink in, and then Neji blanched, pale looks crossing the faces of his comrades. The pale-eyed boy stared at her in horror, almost afraid to ask. "You mean—?"

Robin nodded, face grim. "It's a slave auction. The Marines support it because it brings them a decent amount of money, despite its illegality." She almost sneered, though not quite. "Hypocrites, all of them."

"That, that's disgusting!" TenTen said, her face mimicking her words. "Why would they sell people like that?"

"To appease the Tenryuubito, of course." Robin stared down the path, face carefully free of emotion. "It's not only nominal humans either, though humans are the most common. All manner of sentient, intelligent beings are sold there."

"What manner of beings?" Gai asked quietly, seeing that none of his students were in any manner to ask. Neji was reacting especially badly; he had thought that the treatment of the Branch House members in the Hyuuga clan was bad, so hearing something like this was far worse for him than it was for the others.

"Humans, Merpeople, Fish-folk, Sky Dwellers, Longarms, Longlegs, Giants, Dwarves, Snakenecks, Minkmen, all manner of creatures are sold. Having a special power akin to a Kekkei Genkai just makes them even more valuable, and even having one of those doesn't help one get out of the exploding slave collars unless one can steal the key." The shinobi were struggling not to retch, simultaneously wondering at how the woman could keep a straight face listing all the species that were to be sold. "I was lucky enough to interfere before Keimi got branded. Hatchan would have likely rescued her on time as well, however…"

"Who?" Lee had managed to stomach his revulsion long enough to ask.

"Hatchan is an octopus Fishman that I know. Keimi is a young kissing gourami mermaid that I befriended shortly before coming to Konoha. This, sadly, was not the first time that the poor girl has been kidnapped for the slave trade. Mermaids are very high in demand among upper class society."

Neji spoke next, voice subdued and under tight control. "What did you mean when you said that she almost got branded?" His team glanced worriedly at him, but his face remained blank.

Robin's face was no different. "I meant exactly that. A tattoo is burned somewhere into their skin, most often a large one covering the majority of their back. Impossible to get rid of, and marks the wearer as one of lower class for the rest of their lives, even if they do escape. If someone sees an escaped slave, anyone is allowed to kill the escapee without repercussions, supported by the Marines and the Tenryuubito."

Neji still stared straight, and little conversation was made for the rest of their trip to Konoha. Upon reaching the village, they deposited Robin at the hospital and reported to the Hokage, who left to visit the woman shortly after.

End Flashback

Gai had become worried about Neji for the boy had taken over a week to return to his prior self, spending longer amounts of time in meditation until he did so. Afterwards, there was no visible change in the boy's demeanor, but Gai still knew something was up. Lee and TenTen had become rather intrigued by the odd woman that they had followed into the forest—and Neji was too, though he wouldn't admit it—but, interestingly enough, they could rarely find her when they wanted to.

The woman had caused some slight change in his team without meaning to, as well as no small amount of frustration. Gai couldn't even decide if the woman was youthful or not, especially considering how she'd chosen to keep that… _bullet_ that had been lodged in her leg and taken the medics several hours to heal after her other injuries.

o.o.o.o.o

Enemies of Konoha knew nothing of the woman, not hearing even rumors. Thus, they were unconcerned. Only Orochimaru heard anything, but he dismissed it in favor of continuing his plans for the invasion seven months later.

o.o.o.o.o

Iruka was originally rather suspicious of Robin. Of course, who wouldn't have been, if they were in Iruka's position? The man considered Naruto to be his little brother of sorts, so when a strange woman just went ahead and befriended the boy, of course he was suspicious.

She'd spoken to him several times, explaining that she'd been treated similarly to Naruto as a child and that that's why she was so invested in the boy's wellbeing. Iruka didn't believe, asking just what it was that she was burdened by that would cause people to hate her in such a manner. Her answer?

"I apologize, but that's classified."

*FRUSTRATION!*

Iruka didn't think that anyone could really blame him for his suspicion of her.

o.o.o.o.o

Jiraiya had received word from Sarutobi to return to Konoha because of some woman that had appeared. In order to help convince the perverted writer, he had attached a picture of Robin, with her permission of course. While Robin couldn't even compare to Tsunade, she was still very sexy, and even though Jiraiya would have come back to visit the Hokage just with the one request, the picture definitely helped speed him up.

Maybe she'd want to read one of his books?

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi is reading right now. Don't disturb him. _Shhhh!_

o.o.o.o.o

Anko wanted to see how good this woman's pain tolerance was. Ibiki wanted to see how good she was at resisting psychological torture. Inoichi just rubbed his temples and hoped for the best, commiserating with Chouza and Shikaku over his indifference to the whole debacle and his coworkers' interest. Only Shikaku actually held interest in the woman, but he was content to just listen to what his son said for now.

o.o.o.o.o

Tsume was interested after Kiba and Hana mentioned the woman that smelled like the sea. She'd heard from other clan heads, especially the Aburame and Hyuuga since her son was on a team with a couple of them, that there was something supremely odd about the woman's chakra. Shibi had even mentioned how his bugs thought the woman's chakra somewhat resembled that of a Jinchuuriki's, though there were some obvious differences. Hiashi was all uppity around her, around just about everyone, really, but even he added into the Clan Heads' gossip circle by mentioning that her chakra had an odd tendency to circle around itself, forming swirls even when it wasn't being used. It was strained with a color that wasn't quite natural, forming streaks akin to geological veins.

Tsume herself was interested in the woman's scent. There was the salty smell of the ocean that her kids had picked up, but that was only the most powerful of the smells, despite the fact that it oddly had a tendency to stay on Robin's arms and legs, according to Akamaru. Under those smells, there were scents of old paper and an odd, soapy smell. There was also a scent of sulfur and charcoal, with something she only barely recognized as saltpeter mixed in. The last three were always there in proportion to one another, oddly enough.

Of course, there was also the very heavy scent of tainted blood present as well.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Some people have mentioned that I seem to have a tendency to make the One Piece characters seem more powerful than the Naruto ones. Um… yeah. That's true. I honestly believe that, as a general rule, trained fighters from One Piece are more powerful than trained fighters from Naruto. There are exceptions, like Tobi could possibly pwn most of the major fighters from One Piece, but if you divide the fighters into tiers of power, say by every five percent of the combating population, and compared them to the corresponding level from the other world, One Piece would win. It's not necessarily me being biased. I'm actually pretty sure of **_**why**_** it's like that. The world of One Piece in general is more dangerous than in the Naruto world because there are so many creatures. The main reason is because there's so many people. With more people, there's more reason to fight, more of a reason to get stronger, and more opponents to test ones' self against. If you want to fight in One Piece, you've got no choice but to get stronger. The Naruto-verse may have demons and summons, but it doesn't have sea kings, or Alabastan Sea Cats, or the Calm Belt (which is so infested by enormous creatures that the Forest of Death and gigantic Boss Summons can't really compare), Devil Fruits and Haki… you could make an argument for either world being stronger, but I'm still under the impression that One Piece is on the better side.**

**I **_**did**_** have a line here prompting people to try and discuss the point, but I've realized that that was a mistake, so please don't try to argue it.**

**Ja ne!**


	9. The Only Survivors

**A/N: A word to the wise, I suppose. I'm not going to feature Saul heavily in Robin's story, because I don't think she would involve it all that much. I barely managed to convince myself to involve Olvia, and that her part was necessary to help Sasuke. I really don't think the thing with Saul would be necessary as more than a side note for why Aokiji let her go. Specific names past that (such as Professor Clover) are ignored because they don't have enough of a bearing on the story to affect Sasuke.**

o.o.o.o.o

It was compassionate of Kakashi, Robin decided, that he'd decided to give the genin an extra day off on the Day that one of them would be so utterly downtrodden that the others would take notice and pry. He didn't even try to turn it into some sort of team bonding exercise, the way he did most things. But even Kakashi had some sense of tact, and knew enough to leave some of his students' secrets to their own discretion.

He knew enough to let Naruto keep the Kyuubi a secret, even from Sasuke, until the blonde began to trust his teammates enough to tell.

He knew enough to let Sakura decide on her own to go to a psychiatrist for her split personality, though he would step in if it became an actual problem and began to keep her from functioning properly. Even Sharingan Kakashi wasn't exactly qualified to take care of psychological disorders.

And he even knew enough to let his genin have some time away from each other on the anniversary of the Uchiha Massacre.

Robin sat in a tree, high up off the ground. She was in the cemetery, watching as Sasuke walked among a sea of headstones bearing his family name, with flowers and other offerings in hand.

She sat quietly and watched him as he sat down in front of what she assumed to be his parents' headstones. He stayed there for hours, praying and performing the regular rituals that one would when visiting graves. As he finally got up to leave, he spoke at a regular level, just barely loud enough to hear.

"I know you've been here the entire time."

Robin climbed down the tree the normal way, making sure not to use her Devil Fruit powers since, as this was a cemetery, someone might come by and see. She usually made sure not to use her powers outside her apartment and information trips anyway.

"I made no attempt to hide myself."

Sasuke glanced at her before turning back to stare down the path. The two of them walked quietly along, and Robin found herself wondering about why Sasuke chose to come to her apartment rather than go to his own home.

She made some tea and coffee, making not even an attempt at small talk as she bustled around the kitchen. She hummed under her breath a little, but that was the only sound in the apartment other than clinking of cups and the hiss of steam.

She settled down in an armchair across from Sasuke, handing him his tea and keeping the coffee for herself.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

Sasuke frowned down into his drink, fiddling with the cup. "How much do you know?"

Robin raised an eyebrow, taking a sip of her coffee. "Only that the majority of your clan was killed about four or five years ago, and that you are the only survivor. I was told nothing else."

Sasuke nodded still staring into his cup. It was foolish, probably, to talk to her about this, but he had to talk to someone, right? The Yamanaka therapist that the Hokage had ordered him to go to kept saying that he needed to get over some trust issues he had or something, and that he had to talk about the problem.

The one thing that convinced him that Robin would be good to talk to about this was Naruto. Naruto still wouldn't tell him what it was that had caused the village to hate him, though he'd hinted that it had something to do with his birthday, and that he'd found out during what had been dubbed the 'Mizuki Incident.' Naruto had told him that he'd discussed it with Robin, and that she'd told him a story—a childish, but effective description—that had actually helped him deal with it and come to terms with it more easily.

He set his cup down on the table, but still didn't look up at the pirate woman across from him.

"I was eight years old. I was late coming home because I'd been out training. My brother had always been one of the pillars in my life until then, and the person I looked up to most. He was an ANBU captain by the time he was thirteen, the youngest ever. Everything I did was to either get my father's approval or be more like my brother.

"When I got home, there were dead bodies everywhere I looked. I ran straight to my house once I got over my shock, and I…

"I found my brother, standing over the dead bodies of my parents. He had a bloody sword in hand, and he told me that he was the one that killed everyone, and that I wasn't worth killing. He used a forbidden jutsu using the Mangekyo Sharingan, and forced me to relive the murder of my parents for seventy two hours straight, though only a second passed in real time." Sasuke's voice was rougher now; it threatened to crack and send him into tears at any moment.

"He told me to hate him, to use my hate to get stronger, to kill him and come when I had the same eyes as him. He told me to somehow develop a Mangekyo, which a person can only develop by _killing their best friend_." Sasuke blinked back tears. "Over three hundred clan members; ninjas, civilians, elderly, newborns, he killed them all. He killed off everyone except for me. I-it's my duty to be an Avenger and…"

He broke off, frustrated. His fists were curled up and shaking in his lap, tears just about ready to spill over now. He sat on the couch, trying to push back memories of that night, and almost jumped in shock when he felt a heavy weight settle in next to him, arms wrapping around his shoulders and pulling him into a hug.

"Wha-?"

"Why tell me this?" Robin asked, holding him softly enough to her chest that he could break away if he so chose.

Sasuke squirmed a bit, still looking down at his tightly curled fists. "Naruto said you helped him get over whatever he learned during the Mizuki incident, and my therapist told me to find someone I trust to tell. And… you were there today and didn't interfere, so I just…"

Robin nodded, rubbing his head lightly. "I see. What exactly did Naruto tell you, Uchiha-kun?"

Sasuke shook his head a bit. "Nothing much. Just that you told him some story that helped him out, though I can't really figure out how."

Robin nodded thoughtfully and let Sasuke go, who almost regretfully sank back against the couch seats again. Robin mused aloud, "I suppose it may help you to hear my story as well, though I'll be going into more detail about different parts than I did for Naruto-kun.

"I grew up on an island called Ohara, lauded for its archeologists; my mother was one of its greatest. She left on an archeological expedition when I was two years old, leaving me in the care of her brother and his wife. They treated me like free help, though it wasn't too bad. When I was four years old, I found my devil fruit, and ate it out of childish curiosity, though that action led to the rest of my town ostracizing me out of fear." She took a sip of her coffee, ready to continue on to the part that would interest Sasuke far more, though a small detour to her own experiences of the days leading up to the Buster Call would be necessary.

"One of the best days of my early life, was the day that I was hailed as an archeological genius myself, passing the exam with flying colors at only eight years old. I couldn't study what I wanted to, though. I was banned for my own safety. I'd learned, in secret, using my powers to see into the hidden rooms and learn the Ancient Language. The scholars tried to keep me from learning so that I couldn't be accused of treason against the world government. It had hurt me when they said that, but in running that day I met Saul, my first friend, on the beach.

"The World Government found out about the archeologists in Ohara studying poneglyphs, which was illegal for reasons unknown, though I suspect that the Gorosei was covering up its own tracks in something less than favorable. When they found out what the archeologists at home were studying, they initiated a Buster Call." Her voice was heavy on the last words, catching Sasuke's interest.

"My mother came back on that day to try and warn the island. She had been the only one to escape the destruction of the expedition that had been sent out six years earlier. I barely even recognized her, and she denied being my mother in an attempt to protect me from the Buster Call. She later greeted me, but stayed behind to protect the Tree of Knowledge with the other scholars, and told me to run and get off the island.

"I had made a friend only a few weeks before, a giant that was an ex-Marine Vice Admiral by the name of Jaguar D. Saul. He had defected from the Marines when he helped my mother escape one of the ships. He's the reason I survived.

"A Buster Call is something that can only be activated by one of the three Admirals, the Fleet Admiral, the Commander in Chief of the Marines, a member of the Gorosei, or someone to whom they've given that so-called honor, such as the leader of the CP9, a small and secret government group that was a group of assassins, and about as close to shinobi as anyone got in my world, though the leader was generally closer to a civilian in terms of skill. The Buster Call sends in five Vice Admirals and a fleet of ten ships in to destroy an island. It is the strongest military action that can possibly be ordered."

Robin stared down at her hands. "One of the Vice Admirals sent was Kuzan, and old friend of Saul's. He had to kill Saul, but at his old friend's wishes, allowed me to escape. I was the only one on the entire island that even got a chance. Aokiji, as Kuzan later became, told me to hide and hope that the World Government never came after me. I unfortunately couldn't do that, and spent the next twenty years running from the government and everyone I met. The government wanted me dead for existing, and the people want to turn me over for money."

Robin looked down at Sasuke, a sad smile on her face. "I'll say the same thing I said to Naruto: the situations may not line up perfectly, but I can definitely say that I experienced at least something along the lines of what you have, and much more besides. I thank you for trusting me enough to confide in me."

Sasuke nodded, but there was a faraway look in his eyes. They looked somewhat dead, and he seemed deep in thought, though what could be seen scrolling across his face seemed morbid at best.

"Sasuke." Robin said, calling his attention to her. He looked up, seeing that she was still seated next to him on the couch.

"Hn?"

"If I may make a suggestion?" Robin asked permission, small smile still gracing her face.

Sasuke nodded slowly, not sure what else to do.

"Tell your teammates."

Sasuke's head shot up at that, blatant fear and anxiety in his eyes. No child wanted to have to talk about something like that.

"Why? Why should I—?"

"Everyone has their own secrets. I can say that Naruto is even more protective of his own. Sakura, I can tell, has one that she tries to hide, but barely can. Kakashi has more skeletons in his closet than I care to uncover. Keep an open mind, and so will they."

Sasuke stared at her for a few seconds, and then nodded slowly, still obviously nervous. "Can we talk about it here?"

Robin smiled and gave him a small hug again, knowing that he relished in the contact despite the scowl on his face. "Of course."

o.o.o.o.o

"So we're having some sort of… therapy session at Robin-san's apartment?" Sakura asked, somewhat surprised. This wasn't something she'd really pictured Sasuke, of all people, as taking part in.

Sasuke shrugged, uncomfortable. "Not really. I just asked her if we could talk about it at her place."

Sakura nodded, her inner screeching quietly about how she was going to learn Sasuke's secrets, ones that Ino-pig wouldn't, after all. Naruto would be there, but that wasn't that big of a problem.

"All our secrets?" Naruto's hands were fisted at the hem of his jacket's jumpsuit. He sounded panicked, actually. Sakura frowned at that. What did Naruto of all people have to hide?

Sasuke glanced at the blonde, brow furrowed. Robin hadn't been joking when she said that Naruto was even more protective of his own secrets. "Only if we want to, I guess."

Naruto nodded, staring worriedly at the ground. Sakura glanced between the two boys, a pit of anxiety finally beginning to curl itself up in the bottom of her stomach. If she had to reveal her inner, how would the boys, how would _Sasuke_, react?


	10. To Strengthen a Bond

**A/N – Don't kill me, but I'm not writing out Sasuke's story again. It's not worth it. All it does is artificially inflate my word count. So… it's glossed over. Sorry.**

**Oh, and Robin is scary nice.**

o.o.o.o.o

Robin sat and sipped at her coffee, looking at the three genin that were once again seated on her couch, Naruto fidgeting in the middle, while Sasuke and Sakura looked uncomfortable off to the sides. Kakashi was reading his book where he stood in the corner, seemingly not paying attention.

"Haruno-chan." Robin said quietly, and the girl quickly looked up from where she'd been staring at her hands in her lap. The look on her face was nervous, confirming what Robin had expected of her. "Would you care to go first?"

Sakura's face fell even further. "Erm… why me?"

Robin smiled serenely and tilted her head to the side. "Naruto-kun's secret is an S-Class one that only he and the Hokage can speak of with impunity. Sasuke-kun's involves the deaths of several hundred people and a traitor to the village. I simply thought it would be best to start with the secret that has the fewest repercussions and is the least staggering. Sasuke-kun shall go after you."

Sakura's mouth gaped and she turned to look at the boys. Sasuke was staring at Naruto in surprise; Naruto, in turn, was just looking at the ground, seeming as miserable as a wet cat.

"Well, Haruno-chan?" Robin's voice snapped Sakura out of her thoughts, and she turned back to face the pirate woman.

She gulped and looked down at her hands, fiddling with her fingers in her lap. _Do it quick,_ she told herself, _Like ripping off a Band-Aid_. "Um, well… a couple years ago, something weird started going on in my head, so I borrowed some of Ino's psychology books. I haven't been officially diagnosed by anyone, but I'm pretty certain I've got some sort of chemical imbalance in my brain that's causing me to have either schizophrenia or DID. The problem hasn't caused me too much trouble in everyday life, and it actually helped me with mental cataloguing and the like, but it also causes me to act more… violently and rashly than normal. I haven't even told Ino, but if you two are going to tell me even bigger secrets…" She trailed off, still looking at her hands in her lap. The boys, just from what Robin had said, would probably be even more nervous about telling their secrets, so it was best to just get it all out right now.

"So… it's like there's another you in your head? Just a little more violent or something?" Naruto was curious. Of course, Naruto was curious about everything. Sasuke still hadn't spoken, but Sakura supposed that she could respond, right? Right…

"Ano… I guess. It's a little more complicated than that, and it didn't really match up with DID completely, but it wasn't exactly aligning with schizophrenia either. Putting it simply, though… Yeah."

There was silence for a few seconds, and then Sakura felt a pair of arms hug her from the side. Rather than shoving Naruto off like she normally would, she just sat there, blinking in surprise.

"That's actually pretty cool! It's like you always have a friend with you." His voice took an oddly wistful tone towards the end, but Sakura didn't quite catch it in her surprise.

"Thanks?" She trailed off a bit, and then turned her head to the side, looking past Naruto—still hugging her—and ignoring the adults—they seemed content to watch from the sidelines anyway—over at her last teammate. "Sasuke-kun? You don't think it's all that bad, r-right?"

He gave her a measured stare, one which she couldn't break eye contact with. Naruto finally let go, and only several seconds after did Sasuke finally answer.

"At least you'll know you're not the only one with mental problems." He stated evenly, causing Sakura's breath to catch in her throat. _What?_

Sasuke looked both his teammates in the eye, first Sakura, then Naruto. He glanced at Robin, and then finally fixed his stare on the table. He, like everyone, ignored Kakashi.

He recounted his story in the same manner he had to Robin, not glossing over anything to try and hide something. Sakura's face slowly drained of color as her eyes grew wide, and Naruto's grew stony and suspiciously free of emotion. His fists were, however, clenched; Sasuke guessed it was in anger, considering what he knew of his teammate's temperament. "And so, when I said that there was a man that I had to kill, I meant my brother."

Naruto stared at him, face still curiously blank. Sakura seemed to be blinking back tears, but, then again, she was civilian born, and the massacre of an entire clan would pull at even some Jounin's heartstrings.

"You're letting us help you." It wasn't a question. Naruto's eyes were filled with determination and burned with a type of anger that Sasuke wasn't used to seeing. Naruto was angry on _Sasuke's_ behalf.

Sakura glanced between the two, not that she could really see Naruto's face since it was turned away from her and towards Sasuke, but gulped and, eyes squeezed shut, nodded vigorously. "We're not letting you do it on your own, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke stared at the two blankly, and then frowned. "This is my job. I can't let anyone else—"

A cough interrupted him, and he turned to look at Robin. She smiled at him, that same knowing smile as always, the one that told him absolutely nothing.

"What?"

She just kept on smiling. Several seconds passed, and all three Genin got increasingly more uncomfortable. Robin finally deigned it time to break the silence.

"I don't suppose you ever thought that perhaps your teammates, your friends, could help share your burden?" Her eyes, closed until then, open slightly. She looked almost lazy, but the look in her eyes was yet sharp. "It worked for me, after all."

She continued to smile, eyes now open. It was… unnerving, to say the least.

"Right." Sasuke turned back to his teammates, much paler than he had been a minute earlier. Sakura and Naruto didn't look much better. "I'll… consider it."

Kakashi glanced up from his book in the corner his shoulders shaking in silent chuckles for a few seconds, and then went straight back to his reading. No one noticed, or cared.

"That's nice." Robin noted in a tone that matched the smile on her face, and took a sip of her coffee.

All three genin felt a cold shudder go down their spines, and quickly turned to look at each other again, trying to ignore the stare coming from Robin.

"Er, right." Sakura muttered, and then poked Naruto's shoulder. "Hey, Naruto? What's your secret, then?"

He froze, and his breath started coming more quickly. His pupils dilated, and his fists clenched. He was panicking.

Sakura glanced around him at Sasuke, and saw that he was staring at Naruto.

"Dobe…" He reached up a hand to Naruto's shoulder, gripping it as best as he could. "Dobe, if you haven't reacted badly to what we've said, we're not going to react to whatever your secret is badly. You… you do realize that, right?"

Sakura took her crush's initiative. "Yeah, it can't be much worse than what we've got. Sasuke-kun and I just admitted that we've probably got mental problems. You can't—"

"Kyuubi." Naruto whispered, staring at the ground. "I'm a Jinchuuriki."

Sasuke and Sakura glanced at each other. A human sacrifice?

Naruto continued, not noticing. "The Academy lied. The Kyuubi didn't die on the night of the attack. It _can't_ die. The best that can be done for a demon is to seal it into something. Usually, a human. In this case, a new born child. That night, me."

Sasuke and Sakura were staring at him now. He ignored them, and kept talking. "It explains a lot, doesn't it? Why all the villagers seem to hate me. Why my apartment gets trashed on my birthday every year. And no one can even talk about it. It was jii-san's way of trying to give me a normal childhood. You couldn't talk about it to anyone that didn't already know. Too bad people taught their kids to hate me anyway."

Tears were coming down his face, and as he reached up to dry them, something he hadn't expected, but really should have, happened.

Sakura was hugging him, and she'd pulled Sasuke into the hug—giving him a small but unexpected glare in the process—with her. Naruto was being hugged from either side by his teammates.

Robin smiled and sat back as she watched the young team comfort each other. She turned her head slightly to acknowledge Kakashi as he came up behind her.

"Did you know that would happen?"

"Know? I can't know everything, Hatake-san. But I had hoped, and I had expected. My expectations were simply proven to be correct."

"Mm." He hummed slightly to recognize her words, still looking at his book. "I think they might be ready for their first C-rank soon."

Robin turned slightly to look at him. "Oh?"

"Yes, I'll be looking through the incoming C-rank requests to find a suitable one for their first. Preferably it would be something like an escort mission with little risk to a nearby area. Of course, I'll also avoid your mission."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "My mission?"

He waved a hand at her dismissively. "The forest escort thing."

"Ah." Robin took a sip from her coffee again, and turned her head to Kakashi oh-so-slightly. "May I come along if I wish to?"

Kakashi glanced down. "I guess it would be possible if we talked it over with Hokage-sama, though I don't know how we'd explain it to whoever hired us. Why would you want to?"

Robin smiled, eyes almost shut in a way that reminded Kakashi of his own smiles. "I have been researching much of your local histories. There are ruins everywhere that I would like to visit, if possible. If one of your missions leads you near some, I'm going to take advantage of the situation and come along without having to beleaguer the Hokage with missions that do not benefit him. I can even come along as extra protection, if an excuse is needed."

Kakashi eye smiled, matching Robin for a moment. "Alright, then. I'll see what I can do."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N- Oh, you guys got some KakaRobin shiptease, since I had some people complaining about that. I'm still not going to pair them, but I'll mock you with subtext.**


	11. Omake: Birdy Birdy

**As a prize for being the author of the fiftieth review, ****Simplicity-Shitsuboku**** was given the opportunity to request an omake. This is the result, to tide you over until I get off my butt and write the Wave Arc.**

o.o.o.o.o

Robin glanced up from the text she was perusing as she heard loud laughter outside her door, laughter that obviously came from a certain blonde demon container.

"It's not funny, Naruto no baka!" A loud thump followed Sakura's exclamation, and though the laughter diminished in volume, it was still present.

"C'mon, Sakura-chan! You know you'd be laughing if it happened to anyone else! Imagine if it happened to me, or Kakashi-sensei! You'd be laughing then!"

"It's still here." Sasuke's voice came next, almost whining. "Kakashi, can't you do something?"

"Maa, maa, Sasuke, this is good training. When something goes wrong on a mission…"

"What does ANY of this have to do with, with that _thing_?!" Sasuke shouted.

"Now, now, Sasuke, I'm sure that you'll make a fine mother to this darling little—" Naruto was mocking Sasuke, and sounded as though there was actually something to mock, for once.

"Shut _up_, idiot!" Sasuke sounded far more irritated than normal. Robin closed her book, and got up to look and see what was going on in the hallway. She chuckled lightly at what she saw.

"Oh my." Robin held a hand up to her mouth to cover her smile as Sasuke sent a dark look at her. "Was it the hair?"

Sasuke _hissed_ at her. How amusing.

Naruto snorted. "Yep, one look and it wouldn't stop following him!"

"Naruto, stop making fun of Sasuke-kun!"

"I have to admit," Robin said to Kakashi, leaning next to him against the wall, "I have seen a lot, but I've never seen this."

There was a baby chick nestled on top of Sasuke's head, snoozing soundly.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin watched as the Sakura and Sasuke attempted to convince the chick to come down from its perch on Sasuke's head. Naruto watched and, surprisingly, scolded them whenever they did something that might hurt or frighten the poor little thing. Kakashi was sitting next to Robin, nose in book, though she could see the outline of a smile through his mask.

"Do you think they'll achieve anything working like that?"

"Perhaps." Robin mused. "But it is unlikely. I believe it would be much simpler to simply call an Inuzuka and their hound to possibly do translations, but they appear not to have thought of that option yet."

"Do they _have_ any Inuzuka friends?" Kakashi asked as the kids tried to coax the little birdie down with some kernels of corn. It didn't work.

"I believe that there was one in their class that Naruto was rather well-acquainted with." Robin said lightly.

"I assume your own powers would be unsuitable for this occasion?"

Robin smiled, nearly sending a shiver down Kakashi's spine. "No, my own powers would be rather ill-suited to this. Did you hear some—?"

"HOW IS IT BREATHING FIRE?!" Naruto's scream pierced the air, as did Sakura's rightly fearful screeches. Sasuke… stood there with the baby bird on his head, a single sweatdrop making its way down the back of his head.

"Ah." Robin leaned back in her chair. "More coffee, Hatake-san?"

"No, thank you."

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi and Robin were playing chess in the pirate woman's living room. Kakashi was winning, four to three.

Three loud screams came from outside, and the two adults were outside quickly. At least, Kakashi was; he used a shunshin. Robin just walked, calmly, slowly.

"Huh." Kakashi watched the scene, not bothering to take out his Icha Icha.

"What a large bird." Robin commented, standing next to him.

They watched as an extremely large bird, blue and green, with pink sparkles on its crest, and shiny purple feet and a burnt-orange beak abducted the chick.

"I suppose that must have been the bird's mother."

"Yes, it wouldn't be the first time. Shall we return to our game, Hatake-san?"

"Hm… sure."

They left the three genin behind, in shock as they were.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Meh, whatever. The original prompt is below:**

Sasuke came back from a mission with a chick following him, thinking his hair was its mother. He goes to Robin for help, but nothing they try really works. Then a giant chicken appears, the chick's mom, and takes the baby away.

o.o.o.o.o

**Obviously, I changed it around a bit, but I think I got the spirit of it.**


	12. The First Mist

**A/N: This chapter brought something special to my attention. I only ever have "Hai" as a sort of formal version of "yes." Militaristic, almost. Try not to let it get to you.**

**You guys also get a bit more in depth about why **_**else**_** I think Robin is capable of taking on most of the shinobi there. In my opinion, Robin is the pirate equivalent of an A-rank if we're using ninja classification in the One Piece world. **_**Maybe**_** low S-rank, but probably just high A-rank. I mean, S-ranks in One Piece are like some of the Supernovas, the Yonkou, the Admirals (maybe Vice-Admirals), the Shichibukai, etc. Robin's good, but not quite that good. I'm willing to reconsider post-3D2Y, though. At that point she may be considered S-rank.**

**o.o.o.o.o**

"Robin-san! Robin-san!" Naruto ran past Robin's apartment and into his own, shouting all the way.

Robin came out of her own apartment, and smiled at Naruto as he quickly packed all his bags. She raised an eyebrow at the ramen, but ignored it in favor of asking exactly what was going on.

"We got a C-rank mission! We're gonna be escorting this old guy back to his house in Nami no Kuni so that he isn't robbed by bandits."

"Nami no Kuni?" Robin's voice was low and thoughtful. "I read that there are some rather interesting ruins on the west side of the island…"

"Robin-san?" Naruto was fully packed, only a few minutes after he'd come by. He watched as Robin sifted through a few papers, pensive look on her face.

"Naruto-kun?"

Naruto straightened up as Robin finally spoke up again. "Hai, Robin-san?"

Robin smiled at him, and he could have sworn that he felt a shiver go down his spine.

"Do you mind if I come with you so I can talk to Hatake-san?"

Naruto nodded mutely.

_What just happened?_

o.o.o.o.o

A whirlwind of confusion later, and Robin had been approved by the Hokage to come with Team 7 on their trip to Nami no Kuni, for an archeological expedition on her part. When Tazuna asked why Robin got to share the protection of the team, he was quickly handed the answer.

"She's just as capable as we are. She's only coming along now instead of on her own because it's convenient."

Tazuna accepted the extra protection as what it was: coincidental.

Upon the attack by the nukenin—Robin did have to admit that she hadn't noticed the puddle, though that may be because Naruto was trying to start a squabble with Sasuke again—the pirate woman had been just as quick to draw her new dagger, coated in paralytic poison, as the shinobi were to draw their kunai, not that she ended up using it. She didn't even have much of a stance, just stood there, as if ready to do something completely different than what she was projecting of her intentions.

That night, she and Kakashi had a conversation by the campfire as everyone else was asleep.

"I offered to take first watch already. You don't need to stay up."

Robin shrugged, the movement barely there. "It's been a long time since I've slept full nights. I had to learn to do without sleep when I was only eight years old. I've been a bit of a forced insomniac for over twenty years. It's not a problem for me to stay up like this."

Kakashi made a noncommittal noise as he poked at the fire with a branch. "Why didn't you help out when the Demon Brothers attacked?"

Robin smiled, looking up from the text she had been looking at. "You really are curious, aren't you? You seem to be underestimating yourself. You handled the situation quite well."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"No, it doesn't, does it?" Robin murmured, looking down at the fire, smile still on her face. After a few seconds of silence, she looked up to see Kakashi giving her a deadpan expression from the other side of the fire.

She laughed softly. "I think you're underestimating just how much I would like to keep my abilities a secret."

Kakashi snorted. "It's not that I don't understand that, but you're going to farther lengths than any ninja I've met."

Robin replied easily. "My powers are unlike anything anyone here has. By keeping them in reserve, I am more likely to be able to take an enemy by surprise with them. I'm in a good position the way I am, and I do not intend to compromise it."

"A good position."

She nodded. "Exactly. If a ninja were to come to my world, I'm sure they would do the same. Powers work differently between the two universes, of course, so a shinobi would be in a better position than you'd think in my world, and a pirate or marine would have the same here. If I keep my powers hidden from as many people as possible, it's easier for me because they expect my powers to fall within a set of certain conditions that are governed by your rules for chakra and the like."

"My powers_ don't follow those rules."_ That was the clincher.

"And yet," She leaned back slightly, her smile looking more like a smirk in the firelight. "I have the advantage because I can study your own styles of fighting innocuously; I could get more knowledge from a civilian on the street about shinobi techniques than you could about my powers from almost anyone in this world."

Kakashi nodded slowly. "You have the advantage, then. You can predict possibilities concerning our moves, but no one can predict yours."

"They can predict, but they will be wrong."

Silence…

"Do you want to take the next watch?"

"I'd be happy to do so."

o.o.o.o.o

The next morning found them on the road again, Tazuna staying as close to Kakashi and as far from Robin as possible. After some thought, Kakashi just decided that, since Robin was a rather good-looking woman, and a dangerous one at that, Tazuna probably just didn't want to do anything that might accidentally be viewed as perverted by the woman and be subject to her 'feminine vengeance.'

It was understandable, if a bit too far over the top. Kunoichi, as a general rule, were well known for taking great offence to perversion and exacting punishment from the presumed offender. Robin was rather level-headed and understanding when it came to a man's perversity. Of course, that didn't mean that she would take it lying down if someone did something _to_ her, but cracking a dirty joke wasn't going to make her 'flip out' like so many other women. It was… refreshing.

"Naruto!" Sakura's shout drew his attention back to his team. "I can't believe you! You almost killed this poor bunny rabbit!"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow as his two genin fought about the bunny, ignoring Robin's comment about an accidental lobotomy and how terrible of a way it would have been to die, how the blood and brain matter would have done this and that—he really didn't need that image in his head, thank you, he'd seen similar things happen enough times and _did not want_—and wondered just how Sakura would react when she would have to take a _human_ life, not just a simple rabbit.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed at the rabbit. It was summertime, and yet the rabbit was white. That meant it had been raised in captivity.

His eyes widened again as he heard the telltale noise of something large and probably deadly flying through the air, ready to kill.

"Look out!" He threw the people that were with him in the path of the whatever-it-was to the ground; he barely snagged Sasuke, who was farthest from him.

"Oh my, that's a rather large sword, isn't it?" Robin commented, speaking to the figure standing on the sword that was imbedded in the tree trunk, probably with enough force to bisect an ox. "You must be quite strong in comparison to most shinobi to be able to carry such a weight."

The figure hesitated for a moment, and Kakashi managed to identify him as Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist. The man was probably a little confused at Robin's reaction to his attempt at murder. He was likely expecting something like Tazuna and the kids, frightened out of their senses, or on guard and ready to fight like Kakashi. Small talk was obviously not on his agenda, but it apparently was on Robin's.

"I've seen larger, of course." Kakashi willed his mind not to think of how else that statement could be regarded. "But, then again, I also knew a man that could turn any part of his body into a steel blade, and met another that had a sword longer than he was tall. It was not quite such an odd shape as your own, though."

Naruto and Sakura had come back to them, getting into the manji formation around Tazuna at Kakashi's signal. He stepped forward and began to talk to Zabuza. The two quickly bantered back and forth, Kakashi cringing as his Sharingan was revealed by Zabuza and Sasuke's head whipped around to stare at him.

_Don't take your eyes off the enemy, Sasuke_. He thought, and felt relieved, if only slightly, when Robin reached out and turned Sasuke's head back to watch for attacks.

"Who are you?" Zabuza was pointing at Robin, who simply smiled back in the same unnerving manner as always.

"Nico Robin of the Straw Hat Pirates. I am also known," Kakashi imagined that he could suddenly see flashbacks of Robin's past and see the expression under Zabuza's wrappings, but shook the images out of his head as Robin spoke after the pause that felt far longer than it was, "as the Devil's Child."

Kakashi tried to imagine thunder striking in the background, but he couldn't. He could, however, notice the shudder that seemed to go down Tazuna's spine and the look that entered the eyes of the genin.

"Got a bounty on your head?" Zabuza asked, tilting his head to the side, getting into the swing of Robin's rather alternative methods of meeting possible enemies. Small talk was fun, even if it was a bit odd.

"It was at eighty million Beli when I last checked. The local equivalent would be approximately eight million ryo." Kakashi cursed silently as Zabuza's eyes widened in surprise, and then narrowed in thought. "It's not particularly important, since getting my body or head to the proper authorities would be impossible for almost anyone other than the man who sent me here in the first place. I can see why you would want to know, considering you are a fugitive from the local governments yourself."

Zabuza raised a nonexistent eyebrow. "What did you do to get it?"

She just shrugged, still smiling cheerfully. "I know too much. I am also a powerful fighter in certain circumstances, but it is mostly my knowledge of an ancient language that my government fears."

"So you're more of a political enemy than a true criminal." Zabuza sounded almost… disappointed?

"I was, when I first went on the run when I was eight. And then my crew declared war on the government earlier this year and I fully embraced my position as a pirate."

Zabuza stared. "You became a nukenin at eight?"

"I'm a pirate, not a nukenin, Momochi-san." Robin corrected him. "I am not, nor have I ever been, a shinobi. As for the answer to your question, I was feared nearly worldwide even as a child, yes."

Tazuna looked like he was going to soil himself. The kids were looking on in a mixture of respect, anticipation, and fear, though the latter two were mostly due to Zabuza and his giant cleaver.

Ten minutes later, it was chaos.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto, quite honestly, was panicking. How was he supposed to keep Tazuna safe, _and_ get Kakashi out of that weird water ball prison thing? Robin had been helping, and had even seemed to be a lot better off during the thing with the mist (maybe she grew eyes and ears everywhere? He didn't know and couldn't think) but something happened by the water that he couldn't really see and she'd fallen to her side in the shallows and _wasn't getting back up to fight_. She was trying to get out of the water, but she seemed weaker than normal; maybe it was blood loss from a wound that he couldn't see, he didn't know, _he didn't know, __**he didn't know**__._

He had to get them out. He had to do something, hurry up and…

His eyes locked with Sasuke's, ignoring even Sakura's scared breaths only a few feet behind him as she stood ready to protect Tazuna, inconsequential though she would be to someone like Zabuza. As he stared into eyes black as night, he realized…

He had a plan.

o.o.o.o.o

He hadn't known. It had been lucky on Zabuza's part. He had no idea _how_ he'd managed to more or less incapacitate and mitigate the woman, but he was glad that he had.

The hits came out of nowhere. He could see where the woman was standing, see how she held her arms up to her shoulders, muttering words that he didn't recognize, but he couldn't see how she was hitting him, tripping him, and even throwing off his sword swings. He could swear that she'd somehow made Kubikiri Hochou heavier, if only by a few pounds, and done something to increase wind resistance greatly. He'd at once point felt something choking off his airway and sent out a blast of chakra from his neck to get rid of what he knew had to be a genjutsu. It was then gone, and the woman, Nico Robin, was looking at him with a frown on her face.

Oh, he could _feel_ her chakra, or at least something similar to it, acting up and showing up in places other than her body, but he couldn't see what it was that it was doing. Just like he couldn't tell why she was so much more sure about where he was than any of the others when he hunted through the mist.

He'd led her to the water, and shot a Suiton at her. It made her fall down, thankfully, and then she hadn't gotten up, even though he'd gotten her with another one earlier and she'd gotten up easily _then_. But she was down, and not getting back up, and that was the important thing.

Now he just had to take care of Sharingan Kakashi, an even bigger danger, and the man's brats.

He hoped Haku was on standby if the Konoha Jounin proved to be just as dangerous as his Bingo Book entry claimed him to be.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I'm actually going to end it there. I'm ahead of schedule, yeah, but this was a much better place to stop than anywhere else I could have done so.**


	13. Would You Like Some Tea?

**A/N – I'm not writing out the rest of the fight in detail. You saw how I dealt with fighting in the last chapter, all vague insinuations and thoughts, more than actual hints. That's pretty similar to how I'm going to deal with the end of the fight now: bland references from post-fight conversation.**

**Oh, and I'm going to keep on writing KakaRobin Ship Tease that I will likely never follow up on. It's just so much fun, since I am almost certainly **_**not**_** going to ever have them become a couple.**

**I've also realized that I rarely write from Robin's perspective anymore. I mean, in this chapter, it goes: the genin as a group, Kakashi, Inari, Sakura, Kakashi, Sakura, Kakashi with a hint of Naruto and Sasuke at the end, everyone present, the workers, and finally everyone present again.**

**Random Pet-Peeve: when people write in a story that Robin giggled. Robin doesn't giggle. She might laugh softly, she might chuckle, but she does not **_**giggle**_**. I can't tell you how annoying that is to me. Same goes for sniggering, snickering, smirking and any other immature act.**

o.o.o.o.o

Robin walked along, placating Naruto absentmindedly as he asked about her collapse by the water, and giving him small compliments on how he and Sasuke had gotten Zabuza to release Kakashi. It wasn't enough to dissuade his worries; Naruto could see through it, but after a while even he realized that she wasn't particularly in the mood to talk. Everyone could see, and the one person that would have pressed the issue for any reason pertinent to the fight was currently unconscious.

Robin eyed the boat oddly as they came to the water's edge. Her expression was halfway between excitement, which Naruto imagined was from not having been on water-crossing transport in a while, and trepidation… maybe because the boat wasn't very big and might tip over with all of them in it?

Nonetheless, she got into the small craft and a smile graced her tired face as they set off.

"Ne, Robin-san? Why are you so happy all of a sudden?" Naruto asked, hoping that this one question wouldn't irritate her.

Robin looked down at the blonde, and then out at the water. "It's been a while since I've been out sailing. It's a comforting feeling, that of the sea."

The three genin stared at her for a second or two, while Tazuna just glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

"I suppose this is just another way to prove that I am a pirate through and through." Robin drummed her fingers on the side of the boat, the soft sound echoing faintly in the gloom.

A choking sound came from Tazuna and the rower, and Tazuna actually stumbled back despite the fact that he was sitting. He hit the side of the boat and began wind-milling his arms to stay in. The three genin all jumped to keep him from falling out, making the boat tip dangerously.

"Careful!" The rower hissed, doing his best to keep the boat from capsizing.

Naruto opened his mouth to say something, and Sasuke lunged to cover his mouth before he shouted and gave away their position. They stumbled back to the other edge of the boat, Naruto clawing and kicking to get away from Sasuke. Neither realized that Robin had by that point stood up in order to make an attempt to bring order to the chaos that had erupted. Still a little weak from the incident with Zabuza and the journey there itself, she didn't realize what was happening in time to stop it.

Naruto and Sasuke had pushed her off the boat.

The splash echoed loudly for a short while, the two boys staring in surprise and some horror at themselves—because, really, Robin could be _scary_ sometimes—before rushing over to the side and staring down at the water.

"Hey, dobe…" Sasuke muttered, eyes fixed on the dark expanse below. "Can Robin-san swim?"

"She's a pirate, isn't she?" The blonde whispered back.

"That doesn't mean—"

"One of you just go in after her!" Sakura hissed, surprising them. "I'm not a strong swimmer, but at least one of you should be able to get her, right?"

Naruto glanced at Sasuke, and then quickly made a few Kage Bunshin, jumping into the water with them.

"What—?" Tazuna started.

"Shut up." Sasuke said evenly. He didn't snap, and it almost sounded like a statement as opposed to a command.

Less than half a minute later, three Naruto surfaced a ways away, and swam back to the boat, dragging a coughing Robin with them.

Sasuke and Sakura helped pull them into the boat. First Robin, and then Naruto, who only dispelled the clones after they'd already helped him in.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked, worrying about Robin.

"Hey, what about me?" Naruto complained, wringing out his jacket. Robin smiled in amusement, seemingly ignoring her own drenched state.

"Baka." She smacked the back of his head, but it wasn't hard. "You weren't under for as long as she was, and as far as I know… _that _thing…" She glanced at Tazuna and the rower warily, so that Naruto knew that she was only referring to the Kyuubi like that because of the law. "Inside you will fix anything that goes wrong."

"For the record," She spun and pointed at the two civilians, Tazuna cringing at the pink-haired menace. "I blame you two."

"Robin-san?" Sasuke asked, standing back from the mess.

"I'm fine. I suppose it may have been a good idea if I'd informed you of my inability to swim before we'd gotten on the boat." She glanced back over her shoulder at her bag. "It's a good thing I put all my books and papers in waterproof bags."

Naruto looked down at the bottom of the boat and poked Kakashi in the arm with his toes. "You'd think Kakashi-sensei would have woken up by now."

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi blinked sleepily from where he lay on the bed as he woke up. Sakura was by his head, worrying over his apparent fever—she'd make a fine medic someday—while Naruto and Sasuke were quietly bickering in a corner. Robin sat in a chair far to left, near a window. As he watched, she quietly turned a page.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed, noticing that he'd woken up. "You're awake!"

_No duh_. Kakashi thought, though he was a little coarser in his word choice.

"Yes. Mind telling me what happened after I passed out?"

Sakura and Naruto babble away, with Sasuke tossing in a comment now and again. Only once or twice did Robin speak, but speak she did.

"You can't swim?" Kakashi looked over at her, blinking in surprise. Why wouldn't she learn to swim if she lived on the sea.

"It's a side-effect of my powers. There isn't a Devil Fruit user in my world that can swim." She told them. They already knew what she couldn't do, so there was no reason to tell them _why _she couldn't.

"Oh." Kakashi blinked again. He supposed that explained a few things. "Do I get to know what your powers are yet?"

Sakura looked between the two of them, hopeful. In all, only Naruto, Sasuke, and the Hokage himself were privy to the secret of Robin's powers so far.

"No, not yet. Though I will admit that I did use them."

"Ah." Kakashi nestled his head back into his pillow. "Right. Now, about that oinin…"

o.o.o.o.o

Inari peeked his head around the door and stared at the woman that, for some reason, was scaring his grandfather. She didn't really look all that scary; she definitely wasn't a ninja, since she didn't have a hitai-ate. He came out from behind the door… and caught sight of the shinobi at the table.

His eyes narrowed and he felt a deep pain in his heart. _Kaiza…_

_There are no heroes._

o.o.o.o.o

Sakura glanced at Sasuke, who was still staring off after Naruto. Naruto had stormed out after Inari ran off in tears. Sakura then looked to Robin, noting the decidedly odd expression on her face.

"Robin-san?" She asked softly. "Why did you let Naruto go after him?"

Robin tapped her finger against the table a few times. "This is something Naruto-kun needs to do, both for himself and for Inari."

Sakura looked at her for a few more seconds, and then scooted a little closer to Sasuke, staring at her hands in her lap.

_Why was her tone so far-away?_

Sasuke still hadn't looked away from the door.

o.o.o.o.o

"Alright, my cute little students!" Kakashi purposely channeled a little bit of Gai into his countenance. "We'll be climbing trees today!"

The three students all reacted in the ways expected of them, as Robin looked on from the side. She'd opted to postpone her archeological investigation until the mess with Gato was over.

"Now, now, children." He admonished them, wagging a finger, and his grin widened when he saw that Robin was covering a smile with her hand, not that anyone could really tell. "I haven't told you the best part yet!"

He hobbled over to the tree, placing a crutch on it. "We're going to be climbing trees…"

Kakashi took a few steps up the side.

"Without our hands!"

Oh, he loved it when his students looked astonished. It was such a boost to his ego. Even Robin looked interested, though her expression was more contemplative than that of the genin.

"Wah! Sensei, how did you do that?!"

As Kakashi explained what he'd done, he noticed that Robin was paying just as much attention as the genin. After setting the three to their tasks, he walked over and settled down next to her on the stump she was sitting on.

"Well? Would you like to learn too, Robin-kohai?" He joked, and the smile on Robin's face filled with mature, detached amusement at the honorific.

"It does seem interesting, and quite useful. However, I must admit that I've never felt chakra in the manner that you seem to. I wouldn't know where to start." She admitted.

"Maa…" Kakashi said, leaning back a bit. "I could show you."

She looked at him in askance and he held out a hand. "If I channel chakra through my hand to yours, you'll be able to feel it. That'll help, and then I can show you some Academy-level chakra control exercises."

Robin nodded slowly and reached out to put her hand in Kakashi's, and blinked as she felt the chakra wash over it.

"Oh my." It was a rather peculiar feeling.

o.o.o.o.o

Sakura sat on a tree branch, chest heaving a little as she tried to recover her breath. Okay, so she didn't really have much chakra. She could work on that.

She looked and saw Naruto and Sasuke still trying to make their way up their respective trees. Her gaze roamed around the area and landed on Robin and Kakashi. Her eyes landed on their hands.

She stifled a squeal, kicking her legs a little. She raced down the tree—she really had to get her stamina up a bit—and called out softly to her teammates as they either fell or blasted off of their trees again.

"Naruto, Sasuke-kun!" She waved them over.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, can you help us figure out—?"

"Not now!" She hissed, and discretely pointed at Robin and Kakashi, still holding hands, and now conversing. Neither of them was paying attention to the genin. "Look at Robin-san and Kakashi-sensei!"

Naruto's eyes bugged out while Sasuke's narrowed in thought.

"They're holding hands!" Sakura practically squealed in giddiness, though she tamped it down to keep the adults from hearing. "And their heads are together and they're talking quietly… It's so romantic!"

"What's romantic about it?" Sasuke muttered. "He's just a powerful ninja with different eyes and just got out of a battle, and she's a pirate lady who's far from home and… that sounds like one of those trashy romance novels, doesn't it?"

He cradled his face in his palm, groaning in irritation.

"Anyway, Sakura-chan? Can you help us? Please?" Naruto brought their attention back from the supposed lovebirds.

Sakura rolled her eyes, but noticed that Sasuke was paying attention to her too, and that was always a plus in her book, even if he was frowning like right now. She drew herself up, ready to explain in true bookworm fashion. "Okay, you two…"

o.o.o.o.o

"So I need to keep the leaf spinning above my palm for how long?" Robin asked, looking down at the leaf that floated gently above her hand.

Kakashi shrugged. "Not too long. I wasn't even expecting you to be this good so quickly, actually. Most adults that didn't have chakra training as children can't really use it all that well if they try learning later in life. It's possible, but extremely difficult. Maybe it's a side effect of that fruit of yours."

"I suppose."

"Using it, however you do, is probably also the reason you have such good control compared to what I expected."

"I see." Robin looked down at the leaf and imagined spinning it. She let the tiniest bit of extra chakra she could slip out of the left side of her palm, slowly forcing a side of the leaf up. It flipped over itself, and she repeated the action, letting more out. Soon, the leaf was spinning over and over itself, faster and faster, and she began to try and get it to do more 'tricks.' She made a small mistake, however, and it shot off of her palm.

"Ah. It appears a little more practice is needed."

"Heh." Kakashi laughed once. "The real beginning exercise is actually sticking a leaf to one's forehead, but I figured that would be a little too silly for you."

"Mm. I appreciate the thought, Hatake-san."

Kakashi looked at her for a second. "Why do you still call me that?"

Robin blinked at him. "My apologies, but I don't quite understand the question."

Kakashi shrugged. "You call Naruto by his own name instead of calling him 'Uzumaki-kun.' You switched over to personal names instead of family names for Sasuke and Sakura, too. But you've known me as long as you've known them, longer, actually, and yet you still refer to me as Hatake. I thought it might just be because they were kids, but…"

"Oh, is that all?" Robin brushed off the question. "I barely even referred to anyone on my own crew by their actual names back; usually I referred to them by their occupation instead. I only began using their names after an incident which involved declaring war on the World Government—"

Kakashi blanched. Who would declare war on the world?

"—for my sake—"

Okay, that made a _tiny_ bit more sense, but still…

"—and even then, it was rarely for anyone other than Luffy, my captain."

She sometimes had to remind Kakashi of who was who from the names she mentioned offhand from her life back in her own world. Luffy, though, she shouldn't need to explain anymore.

Kakashi nodded… "I think I get it… It's about how much you trust us, right? At least, with the adults…"

Robin nodded slowly. "More or less. It's a little more complicated than that, but that is the best we can do for now, I expect."

"You wanna try the tree walking, Robin-san?" He eye-smiled, stood up, and walked over to where his genin were.

"I suppose I could try. The small exercise I just tried was barely taxing."

"Ah, that reminds me. Sakura!" He called out to the exhausted young girl. "You can go back to Tazuna's house, now."

She nodded wearily and began trudging off slowly, while behind her Naruto and Sasuke continued to try and see who could get higher. They glanced out of the corner of their eyes

"I noticed you were paying attention when I was telling my students earlier, so I don't have to explain everything again, but I should probably mention that you may not want to start out in heels. Not the first few times."

"I'll take your word for it." Robin took off her heeled sandals and put them to the side. Rather than running up the side of the tree as the genin had done, she took measures to do the exercise slowly, making sure one foot was stuck on and unmoving from the bark before taking a step with the other.

"Interesting." Kakashi remarked, stepping back _just_ far enough that he could see Robin clearly and _not_ be accused of looking up her skirt, which he so _obviously_ hadn't. "It looks like you really _have_ got better chakra control than you should. Lucky you, to have such a helpful fruit."

Robin chuckled and came back down from the few steps she'd taken. "If this is an aide in my quest for the Poneglyphs and an aide to my crew, then I see no wonder in my speed of learning. One is always more powerful when one has someone to protect and strive towards, correct?"

She smiled at him, back on the ground by now, and he eye-smiled back. "That's exactly right."

Sasuke and Naruto looked on, mentally groaning in exhaustion. Why couldn't it be that easy for them?

o.o.o.o.o

A week later, they were all on the bridge again. Robin had moved on to the water-walking only a few days in—she spent several days learning to tree-climb in heels, since that was what she normal wore, and on the edges of the only two large boats in Wave, which were decommissioned with Gato's iron rule—and the time that she had spent with Kakashi, since she couldn't be left on the water alone—and that was her primary motivation to learn this, after all—had caused Sakura to grab onto the perceived romance with even more fervor. The boys mostly ignored that, but they could still be caught eyeing the two adults out of the corner of their eyes in curiosity once in a while.

Of course, when they arrived at the bridge, about half the workers were gravely injured, and the other half were mysteriously missing.

o.o.o.o.o

(On the underside of the bridge)

Several workers were thinking the exact same thing:

_If it weren't for the fact that I'm as scared as I've ever been in my life, this would be the sexiest thing I've ever experienced._

Like Kakashi earlier, their thoughts were quite a bit more coarse, but you can blame the rating for that.

Besides, all those hands really were k—

o.o.o.o.o

Zabuza strode forward as he caused some of the mist to dissipate.

"Sharingan Kakashi. Devil's Child." His eyes swept over them, narrowing on the genin and Tazuna. "Brats. Training target."

"Good morning, Zabuza-san. I have a thermos here. Would you like some tea?" Robin offered, and several lines of thought ground to a halt as she actually held up a thermos.

"No. I want to kill the old man behind you." Zabuza pointed with his sword.

"Ah. That's too bad, then. I suppose you wouldn't be willing to settle this peacefully and leave him alone?"

Kakashi shook his head as Zabuza and Robin talked. This should be his job but… it was so entertaining!

Oh wait, there was a sword coming at him now.

He ducked and yelled to his students as he engaged Zabuza in mortal combat. "Protect Tazuna and watch out for the pseudo-oinin!"


	14. The Fight

**A/N: The fight will have some of the same elements as in canon, but there will be major differences as well. Oh, and you'll miss most of it, too, but I just wanted to warn you before anyone complained about how it went.**

**A lot of Robin's behavior in this chapter is based off of what I remember of her actions in Alabasta when she was facing people that she needed to intimidate. I remember that she didn't really stop smiling during that arc other than when she got hurt, and… that's about it. Really, it's probably terrifying to see a known killer coming towards you with this calm smile like there's nothing wrong with the world. Not even a bloodthirsty grin, or a grimace that shows that they hate this, but it's just like they've found the answer to the universe, and nothing you do can kill them because of that.**

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto and Sasuke had engaged Zabuza's apprentice, and Sakura was standing by Robin and Tazuna.

"Robin-san?" Sakura whispered, eyes trained on the large mirrored dome that her teammates were encased in.

"Mm? I'm sorry, Sakura-chan, I'm a little busy. It appears that Gato decided send a pair of men to try and take Tsunami-san as hostage." Tazuna spluttered for a few seconds, and then just stared in horrified confusion when Robin relaxed her arms a little. "My range has been getting better. Taking out those mercenaries was remarkably simple."

"How did you even know?" Tazuna asked, ignoring the better question of how she'd managed to fight the mercenaries at that distance. She'd given him a chilling smile each time he'd asked about her fighting prowess before, and he wouldn't bother asking now.

"I'm a rather accomplished spy, Tazuna-san." Robin smiled at him, again that chilling smile, and then turned back to the fight.

"Robin-san?" Sakura tried again. "Why aren't you getting involved in the fight?"

Robin smiled again, less comforting and more nostalgic this time. "It's not my fight. I may be a pirate, but I never interfere in another's fight unless they either ask me too or they are about to die."

Sakura nodded, biting her lip and tightening her grip on her kunai, which was already making her knuckles white.

Something was happening in the dome. There was red chakra leaking out from between some of the mirrors. Sakura began to panic.

"Robin-san… is that the Kyuubi?"

Robin nodded slowly, smile no longer gracing her face. "I believe so."

The mist that had been encasing Kakashi and Zabuza suddenly expanded greatly, and the three that weren't currently in a combat situation grouped together. Robin brought her hands up to her shoulders and closed her eyes. She had a small frown on her face as she focused, and several minutes in, she suddenly made grabbing motions.

"Cien Fleur!"

The mist cleared a view seconds later, giving everyone present a clear view of what had happened. Sasuke was unconscious over by where the dome of mirrors had been, and Naruto was facing away from him by his feet with a kunai in hand. The fake-oinin's mask was no longer on, revealing what appeared to be a very pretty young woman. Kakashi had lighting coating one arm, and was obviously ready to plunge it into Zabuza's heart. Zabuza himself had his arm raised with his over-large sword, ready to slice off Kakashi's head.

But that wasn't that strange part, it wasn't at all.

There were dozens of arms holding them all in place. Forty arms had sprouted from the ground, holding back Kakashi; none touched his outstretched arm. Thirty held back Zabuza, with ten sprouting from his back to hold his arm. Farther away, twenty arms were holding back the fake-oinin, who was on his way to step between the two older men.

"I may have used a few too many, but one hundred is such a nice, round number…" Robin muttered.

Sakura choked back a cry.

"I think this has gone on far enough. Would you agree that we speak calmly now?"

Zabuza's eyes were darting around, narrowed and quickly looking for a way out. Kakashi looked ready to drop his arm and use what was left of the Raiton chakra to shock off the multitude of arms at the slightest hint of ill intent. The oinin just looked confused, but being saved from a spur-of-the-moment suicidal sacrifice did that sometimes. Naruto looked relieved, and Sasuke was still unconscious.

"Please stop, Momochi-san, Haku-san. I'd hate to have to kill you."

Robin was smiling.

It was a strained smile, and Sakura noticed. It was hard to tell, and she probably wouldn't have been able to tell if she hadn't known what to look for, but it was there. Unfortunately, it just made the calm, happy look on Robin's face even more unsettling.

"Who's Haku?" She asked, hoping that it might distract everyone enough to lower tension a little. That, and the smile still scared her.

Plus, she was actually curious. It was probably the Zabuza's apprentice, but knowing Robin, there might be some random person she'd met hanging on to the side of the bridge or something.

"Momochi-san's young apprentice. I heard his name while I was keeping track of Gato's movements."

Kakashi's eyes widened—he seemed to have forgotten that his Sharingan was uncovered, which was a problem—as he looked at Robin. "You were spying on Gato?"

Robin nodded, eyes half-lidded and calm. "I told you I was good at spying. Yes, it was quite interesting. It was especially curious this morning, when he hired all those mercenaries to kill whoever survived this encounter."

Sakura could have sworn that she would have heard a pin drop at that moment. The hands all disappeared, and the three that had been held now stumbled a bit. Naruto started dragging Sasuke towards them, quietly—since when was Naruto quiet?—whispering something about the temporary death that Haku had induced in him.

"I believe they're all assembled down by the edge of the bridge right now." Robin said, pointing down towards the edge.

It really speaks for the situation that Kakashi still hadn't asked Robin about the arms.

"What?!" Zabuza spun around, narrowly missing Kakashi's head with the Kubikiri Hochou. Poor Haku was still in slight shock, but turned around to look as well. Zabuza made a hand sign, and what little was left of the mist—the conditions were right for it to form naturally, so even when Zabuza let the technique go earlier, some had lingered—was gone in an instant, revealing Gato and about half the mercenaries that he'd brought with him, with more climbing up with help from the heavy machinery being used to build the bridge.

Gato stared as the mist was suddenly gone, and then sneered. "You must be a baby demon if you couldn't even kill…" He kept talking, but Robin simply walked over to Kakashi and Zabuza.

"May I take care of the mercenaries?"

"So long as I get Gato." Zabuza growled.

"Be my guest, but we're talking after this." Kakashi muttered.

Robin smiled.

"Oi! Are you even listening to me?!" Gato yelled, drawing their attention again.

"Zabuza did not lose because he is, as you said, a baby demon. Zabuza may be demon in full, but even he…" Robin walked forward slowly as she spoke, head down and eyes shadowed, with a smile on her face. It unnerved the mercenaries when they saw her.

"Cannot kill the devil's child."

She raised her head, and there was suddenly an element of sadism to her stare, her smile too fake. She raised her arms, hands to her shoulders, and spoke.

"Ciento Cuarenta Fleur." Seventy pairs of arms sprouted from seventy pairs of shoulders, and wrapped around seventy chins. Seventy mercenaries began to feel the seeds of panic.

"Clutch!"

Seventy necks snapped, and seventy seeds of panic died near-instant deaths before they could grow larger.

Kakashi and Zabuza took a step back, suddenly realizing just what those hands earlier could have done, and just how Robin had played them all.

Behind them, Tazuna was emptying his stomach over the side of his precious bridge. Sakura and Naruto were staring in horror, and Sasuke lay on the ground with calm acceptance. Haku, the oinin, looked on with a blank expression. This was nothing new to him.

Robin's head tilted to the side, smile still there. "I may be a pirate, but even I have some morals. I'd be willing to let the rest of them surrender."

She was talking to several mercenaries that were still on the end of the bridge. They scrambled away, mutters of 'Devil's Child' among them, words of genjutsu and ninjutsu, of what this possibly could have explained. Weeks later, horror stories would be passed around fires about the beautiful pirate that came from the depths of the underworld controlled by her father, and killed hundreds of men in a single wave of her arm. Finding the truth among it all was difficult, and even the men that had been there themselves could no longer remember what had truly happened.

"Momochi-san? You're free to attack." Robin walked back over to Kakashi, the terrifying smile still on her face.

Zabuza hefted the sword on his shoulder.

"It's too late, Gato."

Gato didn't even have time to speak before his head was gone.

"Well, that was rather anticlimactic, wouldn't you say?" Robin said, no longer quite smiling. She wasn't frowning, really, just staring, as if she had no opinion on the goings-on.

"I'm fairly certain that there'll be ghost stories about you soon." Kakashi commented. "And right now, I think I should tell you that I'm probably going to be acting suspicious of you for a few weeks, Robin-san."

"Mm… yes, I know. I don't blame you at all."

"Why did you let the other mercenaries go?"

"There are _children_ on this bridge, Hatake-san."

"Robin-san, you can't really be—"

A body flopped onto the bridge from the side, hands visible from over the edge for barely a moment. It groaned. Another body followed. And another.

"Robin-san…"

"They were on the bridge earlier. These are the half that I managed to sneak away before Momochi got to them." Robin explained, as more bodies were carried back on top of the bridge by an army of hands.

"I… really don't want to know what you've been doing all this time."

"That's alright. Would you like some tea, Hatake-san?"

"… You really do like messing with our heads."

Robin just smiled.


	15. Well, It LOOKS Like Filler, But It's Not

**A/N: Okay, first thing's first. I have to reply to an anonymous review. I don't usually do this, but they brought up enough points that I think people may have been concerned about that I figured I should answer in-story:**

Hm. Showing off much?  
>I got that you mentioned before that Robin is Kage level, but Kakashi is no slouch either and he was in mid-Raikiri. Holding Kyuubi Naruto, Kakashi, Zabuza and Haku without even blinking or showing any strain, over long distances (they are quite a bit away from the Bridge-builder).<br>Yawn.  
>Means that basically any fight until Pain shows up will be decided by default by the fact if Robin is around.<p>

**I'd like to say a couple of things, but the first is this: unless you flame, I reply politely. This, as critical as it is, is not a flame; you have what you believe to be genuine concerns and valid reasoning. So please, don't be shy. Log in, or at least add some sort of identification. And I ****always**** reply to reviews that are of a decent length (also, sorry, but I fixed a few typos for you up there. I hope you don't mind). I don't usually reply to anonymous reviews, no matter how long, but this one brought up a couple of key points that I'm pretty sure a **_**lot**_** of people would be interested in.**

**Second, I never said Robin was Kage level. I said that she was A-class at this point, and maybe S-class post-timeskip. Not quite Kage-level yet. The Kakashi thing will be touched on in point four.**

**Third, she wasn't holding Naruto, let alone Kyuubi-Naruto. She was holding Zabuza, Kakashi, and Haku. I realize that I may have implied that she was, given her comment on it, but the most she did was pop up an eye there. Kyuubi Naruto is covered in demonic chakra; Robin is aware that there is a chance it would burn her—which it would—so she doesn't even bother trying to hold him.**

**Fourth, she had **_**forty**_** arms on Zabuza, ten of which were on his sword. Haku was exhausted, so twenty arms was probably overkill. Kakashi, you may have noticed, was ready to break out at a moment's notice, and there weren't any arms on his Raikiri hand, which he was ready to drop in order to shock off the arms. If Robin had taken a single move towards hurting them rather than holding them in place, they would have immediately taken action. Kakashi wasn't doing that because he sort of trusts her, and Zabuza wasn't because she had arms on Haku, who didn't have enough energy to break out and could thus be quickly killed by Robin.**

**Fifth, just because she wasn't showing any signs of strain, doesn't mean there wasn't any. They weren't as far away as you think (a couple dozen yards at most, actually), and while the Devil Fruit doesn't take chakra to use, chakra **_**control**_** is plenty helpful in learning to use it better (which explains how she was able to take out the kidnappers). Besides, think of how many arms she could use post-3D2Y in canon. She's been in the Naruto-verse for six or seven months now, so she's had enough time to gain a modicum of better strength and skill than she had prior to the Sabaody split. Just because we haven't seen her training doesn't mean she hasn't been. Remember, even in One Piece canon, there aren't any training arcs shown (Oda doesn't like them, for some reason. I guess he thinks they're boring, and I have to agree). I've at least given you **_**something**_**.**

**I'm glad you didn't complain about the mercenaries, because they're really no better than mook-level Marines, which Robin can take out by the dozens, easy.**

**Does that explain things better? I'm sorry if I made things unclear last chapter.**

o.o.o.o.o

Silence reigned through Tazuna's house, and only Robin seemed to be able to feel comfortable despite the sheer awkwardness that pervaded the air.

The civilians were terrified of Zabuza and Haku. Sakura was nervous about what was going on and kept glancing around, especially between Haku and Sasuke. Naruto was acting like a squirrel with a sugar high, his eyes—and head, for that matter—darting around everywhere, while Sasuke was being introverted and almost sulky. Really, though, Kakashi assumed that he was just trying to avoid drawing attention from Zabuza or Naruto, one of whom was still a threat, and the other of which might bring his recent defeat up in conversation. Naruto and Sakura were also acting rather wary of Robin after being exposed to her remorseless kills on the bridge. They still respected her, and they weren't exactly _scared_, but…

Zabuza and Haku were definitely feeling a bit awkward in the house of the man they had previously tried to kill, especially under the constant, unchanging weight of the stares that were trained on them. They, like Kakashi, were wound up and ready to fight at a moment's notice, simply because of the stress.

Robin just sat there and drank her coffee. A small smile graced her lips as she sat right between Zabuza and Kakashi; she probably would have said that it was to defuse the tension between them.

If she was feeling as awkward and stressed as the rest of them, she definitely wasn't showing it.

They'd been there in such a situation for about forty-five minutes, now. The worst injury that anyone had suffered was Sasuke's instilled temporary death. Most everyone had a few shallow cuts from something, and Kakashi had been stabbed with a kunai through his non-dominant shoulder, but that was the worst of it. Most of them had been fine after a good night's sleep.

This did not include the near-dead workers from the bridge, but their names are unknown to the reader, and thus unimportant.

Robin finished up her coffee—her second cup, now—and stood. "Thank you for the lovely breakfast Tsunami-san."

"Ah… you're welcome, Robin-san." Tsunami answered, looking at her with slight nervousness.

Robin walked over to the door and slung her pack over her shoulder. She turned around again, addressing the assorted ninja. "Now that the mess with the bridge has been finalized, I feel no guilt in leaving for a day trip to the northeast side of the island to see the ruins there. Would any of you like to come with me? Zabuza and Haku would be welcome as well, of course. I'm sure your skills with Suiton and Hyoton jutsu would help me in better studying the structures that have by now fallen underwater."

The two of them looked at her.

"…Ruins?" Zabuza asked in confusion. "What would you be doing around something like that?"

"Fufufufufu…" Robin chuckled at his question. "I'm an archeologist first, a pirate second, and an ally of Konoha third. Thankfully, the three have not yet severely conflicted with one another."

"If it's alright with Zabuza-sama, then I would like to go, Robin-san." Haku said quietly, looking first at her and then at Zabuza. The older man thought about it for a bit, and then shrugged.

"What the hey, it's better than the stuff back here. I'll come too." He clapped a hand on Haku's shoulder as he got up, and the boy smiled.

"Ah—" Kakashi got to his feet, holding up a hand with a 'nervous'-looking eye-smile. "We may be on better terms now, but I can't say I fully trust you all to be off on your own. I think I should go as well. My genin can help with Tazuna's bridge, right kids?"

He turned to them, and they nodded quickly. Really, they were ready to deal with a bit of bridge-building as opposed to whatever was going to happen to the more dangerous members of the party.

"Great. Robin-san, you don't mind, do you?" Kakashi asked with yet another eye-smile.

"Of course not." Robin smiled back.

Too. Much. Smiling.

o.o.o.o.o

Zabuza and Haku weren't all that sure about what they were supposed to be doing, so they just followed Robin and Kakashi. The pirate and Konoha-nin walked ahead of them, going to the ruins at a rather sedate pace, and speaking quite amicably.

"Zabuza-sama?" Haku asked, walking quite close to the older man. "Why are we staying with them?"

This was their first chance to speak without a duo of nosy genin poking their heads in since the day on the bridge. Sakura and Naruto had developed an unfortunate tendency to eavesdrop.

"That woman there helped us, and we've been offered a steady job working for a ninja village that isn't going to try to kill us, and might just help us deal with the mess with Kiri." Zabuza answered, and his gaze darkened a little. "Besides, you saw that kid, right?"

Haku nodded, eyes on the ground. "He's… he's like the Mizukage, right? A Jinchuuriki? And you told me about what happened twelve years ago…"

Zabuza nodded, grim. "Exactly. The Kyuubi. If it's sealed in a kid with that kind of determination, there's no telling what the kid could do. He's even got connections to the Hokage, if those stories he boasted to you about are true. And with what happened with Yagura, or at least what we think is happening…"

"He might help." Haku finished. He was still looking at the ground.

Kakashi and Robin had at no point given any indication of hearing them. Zabuza wasn't too concerned about these two learning; it could even be beneficial. Yes, it would be problematic should the genin have found out, but Robin and Kakashi might have been able to help.

"We've arrived." Robin called back, looking around with a smile on her face. She pulled a sketchbook and pencil out of her bag, along with a scroll that looked quite old. "Shall we?"

Her 'escorts' simply shrugged and went along.

o.o.o.o.o

"Alright, Haku-kun. If you could just freeze up that wall." Robin pointed and Haku did as he was told.

Zabuza and Haku had not known what they were getting into. As soon as Robin had finished with some old stone buildings, she'd smiled at them and said that she had a little work for them.

Zabuza had been asked about how well he could control the water, and subsequently been told to move the water out of the way of the ruins that it covered. Robin had then told Haku to freeze up the walls so that she could go in and look around what was there.

The thing was, some of the things Robin wanted to look at were rather deep down. So the walls got rather tall here and there. Kakashi, well, he _helped_, technically…

In any case, the creation of the walls, one after another, huge as they were, was rather exhausting.

"Robin-san." Haku was sweating a little. "Are you nearly finished?"

"Nearly, Haku-kun. I would simply like to examine these markings a little more closely." The lone woman of the group answered.

"Well, hurry up a little." Zabuza muttered from where he was holding back another barrier of water.

"Hm…" Robin stayed as she was for several more minutes, before finally standing again.

She nodded the two men and the boy standing on top of the water. "I'm finished. Shall we go?"

She walked out of the waterless area, and then turned back as she was almost gone. "Oh, and please be careful as you let the water back down. I would hate for these ruins to be further damaged."

There was something in her smile that was almost as cold as Haku's ice.

"After all, the last person to do so wound up in a rather… precarious position."

Zabuza and Haku were careful in letting down the water, not wanting to start a fight. Really, it wasn't that they were all that scared of Robin or anything, but they weren't going to cause an altercation if they didn't have to.

Kakashi was already on the shore again, talking to Robin. Lazy pervert.

o.o.o.o.o

They made it to Konoha without trouble a week later. Two chunin were guarding the gates, and took in the arriving party, nodding to Kakashi.

"Hokage-sama is waiting for you in the tower." One of them said, glancing at the two newcomers for barely a second. It was enough for the nukenin and apprentice to know they would be watched, but not enough to betray any fear or anxiousness. It was obvious that the two had been warned by the Hokage after receiving the message from Kakashi via Pakkun.

"Thank you. " Kakashi nodded in the chunin's direction, walking through the door.

Oh, the game of politics awaited them.

o.o.o.o.o

"How are you still smiling?" Zabuza asked Robin as they, Haku, and Kakashi exited the tower. The three genin had been sent out of the room, but the adults—and Haku, since the young boy was so directly involved—had stayed to talk both about what would happen to the nukenin, considering the current political climate of Kiri, and about the… incidences on the bridge.

Sasuke's Sharingan, Naruto using the Kyuubi, Robin's powers… all of it was information that was fodder for gossip, if let out, and all of the people present were told to keep quiet. It wasn't so much that it was top secret or anything, and there weren't any orders about it, but they were still requested to keep the information quiet, and tell the genin as well.

The Kiri situation was a little more complicated.

That was an understatement.

Konoha was not allied with Kiri for the time being. Kiri was in the middle of a civil war, and the current Mizukage, a man named Yagura, was being rebelled against quite fiercely. Knowing about the Kekkei Genkai massacres, very few of Konoha's citizens, whether shinobi or civilian, would be willing to support the man. Unfortunately, Zabuza was also considered a nukenin by most other countries as well, and it would take a lot of negotiation to keep some of the smaller villages near Mizu no Kuni from demanding the man's head. Had he not gone the true path of a nukenin, and committed as many assassinations as he had without the approval of a village, it may have been easier. Alas, it was not so, and he had been forced into finding some sort of work to fund the revolution as best as he could. There was also the fact that most of his actions had been done under commission, and the rest against Kiri, so no one could really claim that he'd done something illegal in any country other than the one he was from; at most, he'd stolen some of their clients. Yet, the deaths of politicians was still a valid excuse for most of them, and one that they would not hesitate to take advantage of to get Zabuza dead, and maybe Haku to experiment on.

For now, the Hokage had put Zabuza on probation in Konoha as a temporary liaison between the largest of the Hidden Villages and the Kiri rebels, a position which the man was all too happy about. Haku had been offered a spot in the hunter corps, but had declined in favor of asking to work in the hospital. Sarutobi had seen no problem with this, as the hospital could always use a new iryounin, but requested that Haku still work as a field medic from time to time.

Haku had no trouble with the arrangements.

Robin had congratulated them afterwards, walking off somewhere with Kakashi. Haku had waved at the two as they'd walked off, smile on his face.

"You know, Haku, if you're going to go after a pretty woman, you might be better off with someone your own age." Zabuza whispered into his ear. Haku turned red.

"Z-Zabuza-sama!"

o.o.o.o.o

Robin and Kakashi were sitting at a café, both with books open in front of them; one was hentai, and the other, history. To some people—such as the young pink and blonde kunoichi hiding in the bushes—this would look like a date. To Robin and Kakashi, it was a meeting between two professionals about the usage of what was not dissimilar to a Kekkei Genkai on the battlefield.

"Robin-san, excuse my language, but what the [Bleep] was that?" Kakashi relished in the chance to finally ask Robin a few questions within the safety of Konoha's walls. Protocol had kept him from asking while away, but now that he was back in Konoha, he had a chance to talk to the woman that had somehow—he said somehow, but everyone understood how—wormed her way into the lives of his genin team, and ergo his life as well.

"Which part?" Robin asked, turning a page in her book, something about the legends of the priestesses in the land of the demons.

"Let's start with the power itself. How is it possible, and how are things like that classified back in your home?" Kakashi began with the basics. Review, to make sure it wasn't just some new thing popping up and actually fit in with what he'd been told thus far.

"I ate an Akuma no Mi. A Devil Fruit. It is something that, while not common, is certainly not rare enough to be considered a legend." Robin took a sip of her coffee. Kakashi nodded. He'd heard this part before; it was nothing new.

"Devil Fruits are classed into three groups: Zoan, Logia, and Paramecia." She proceeded to explain about the fruit as best as she could, giving a myriad of examples that she'd fought, commanded, and work alongside and under. She explained the consequences of multiple fruits, throwing in a line about Blackbeard and his position as an exception.

Kakashi nodded, believing her a little more. Saying all of that… making up that much information would have not only been difficult, but hard to embellish upon and easy to get caught up in the mess of lies. It didn't completely rule out the possibility, but it definitely made him less suspicious after the utter massacre on the bridge.

"Can you grow anything else? Any other body parts?"

Robin smiled and pointed at Kakashi's book. He glanced down to see an eye blinking back at him.

"So… anything?" He only glanced at her chest for a moment, his eye looking back at hers a second later. It was the kind of look that connoted teasing, rather than genuine attraction.

"Yes." Robin's smile was amused as well. She knew just what Kakashi had meant, and had no problem with it.

"Full body clones?" He was back to being a professional again.

"I have not yet managed that in a significant manner. It's a little complicated, but controlling several dozen arms is quite a bit easier than controlling even a single torso. Recreating a full body would mean splitting my mind in half, and having to multitask in one of the most difficult ways possible."

Kakashi mulled over the information, leaning forward across the table as he stared at the floor. It made sense, he reasoned. It wasn't like elemental clones, where the clones had some degree of autonomy, so you had to give them orders verbally, at most. Kakashi decided to liken it to controlling a large and extremely complicated genjutsu, one where there had to be a version of oneself doing something completely different from the caster in a completely different area. He was pretty sure that only Kurenai had ever bothered to learn or design something like that, along with some members of the Kurama clan, as she was one of the few people with the mental faculties to control something like that.

His opinion of Robin, recently lower than it had been due to the bridge, rose back up a few notches.

"Alright, how about size?" If she could make them the size of an Akimichi's…

"I make a large number of them, and then… _meld them_ together to form larger limbs. I believe I can make my arms sprout to, at the least, the size of a house. I can also…" She leaned in, beckoning forward while glancing to the bush where Sakura and Ino were hiding. Kakashi obliged her, leaning forward to listen. "Sprout wings made of hands. I can't do more than glide, but…" She shrugged as she sat back in her seat, a muted yet triumphant look on her face.

"So… you can fly." Kakashi deadpanned, trying to think of what that would look like. "Sounds rather pretty. Like a descending pirate, archeologist, assassin lady."

"You forgot former casino manager." She added.

Kakashi stared at her. "You ran a casino?"

"Back when I worked for Crocodile, yes. He was the owner, and I was the manager. It was a nice job. Much quieter than the rest of the things I've done."

"Huh. Alright…" Kakashi tried to remember what his next question had been. Oh right, the morbid one.

"People have hollow lungs and stomachs. Would you be able to take advantage of that in a surprise attack if…" He gestured vaguely.

Robin blinked in surprise, and her expression turned thoughtful. "That does sound rather interesting. Powerfully destructive, certainly. I could do a lot of damage if I simply punched around inside someone. And if I were to hold a dagger as I did so…"

Ino and Sakura, still in the bushes, did a double-take. Ino still didn't understand everything, not having a background of information that could decipher just what was going on, but even she was turning a little green at what the two killers in front of her were discussing. Sakura, who did know, was a little less green, having come to terms with what had happened on the bridge and convinced herself that she was bound to see something even more gruesome at some point, so she should just hurry up and get used to it. Naruto and Sasuke—especially Sasuke, since he wasn't perturbed by what Robin had done at all because of… she shouldn't say it—wouldn't always be around to help her, and she couldn't always use them as emotional crutches for something like this. Considering how much less messed up she was than they were, which was saying something when Inner was taken into account, she should be _their_ crutch, not the other way around. So she better man up.

This didn't mean she was immune to what was being talked about. She and Ino snuck away after Kakashi and Robin started to smile a little too widely when talking about a topic that was a little too gruesome for the girls.

o.o.o.o.o

Hinata looked over the short fence of the café, coming closer to the doorway. Several minutes later, a pair of people came out talking and laughing. She rushed forward, bowing low and staring at the ground as she held out an envelope.

"Nico-san, you are hereby cordially invited by Hyuuga Hiashi to dine with the Hyuuga Main House tonight at eight o'clock. My father has expressed interest in your unique chakra after several reports from other members of the clan, and would enjoy discussing it among other things if you agree to come." Hinata rushed it all out, not even stuttering. This was official business which was, for some unfathomable reason, entrusted to her, and she was not going to mess up on this, especially after having practiced what she would say—if Naruto-kun wasn't there, because if he was, she wouldn't have even bothered trying—for several hours.

She finally looked up to see Kakashi and Robin standing in front of her, quietly discussing something. She hoped it was about what she'd just said. She stood straight again, though her head was still ducked, and her hands still held out above her head with the envelope. She didn't turn her Byakugan on; it was _very_ poor form to do so outside of a training ground, but so very tempting.

She had absently noted when she had looked up that Robin was taller than Kakashi-san. Though, he was a Jounin-sensei, so maybe she should refer to him as Kakashi-sensei? Her head snapped back up again as she felt someone tugging at the envelope.

Robin smiled down at her, holding the envelope. "Please inform your father that I would be delighted to come. I look forward to seeing you as well, Hyuuga-san. I've heard some of Kakashi's students mention that you had some of the best taijutsu in the class."

She waved as she left, and returned to talking with Hatake Kakashi.

Hinata smiled shakily to herself as she turned to walk home. She'd done it without making a fool out of herself!

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: The Hyuuga thing has a purpose, one that has nothing to do with the Caged Bird Seal. It has a purpose, it's setup for something big, but it has nothing to do with the seal other than peripherally. Robin's not going to fix things like that. She'll disapprove, yes, but she can't really afford to do anything, especially as it seems that there's no way to get rid of it.**

'**Kay, we've once again hit a milestone review; ergo, the hundredth reviewer got an omake request. This one is for ****Cloud Piece****, who requested:**

Robin, Team 7 and other shinobi put on a play of an abridged retelling of one of the One Piece arcs (you can decide) and perform for the Hokage. It is also a musical, and Naruto plays any animal creature that appears in the arc.

**As with most omake, the prompt was slightly deviated from in the writing of the story (please keep in mind that I can't even follow my own plans very well most of the time), so my apologies are presented.**

**I hope you enjoy it.**

**NOTE: This omake takes place post-chunin exams, due to the date of Kiba's and Naruto's birthdays being so awkward.**

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto grinned as he ran to his apartment building, followed closely by his teammates. He burst into Robin's room.

"Robin-san, guess what!" He shoved a flyer into the face of the surprised woman, though she didn't quite show it. She took the paper from him and moved it out a little to see it from a reasonable distance.

Naruto started jabbering. "Kiba's doing something for his birthday, and he decided that there would be a contest between all the teams our age! We just gotta come up with a story and put on a play and, and, and I wondered if maybe we could use one of your stories from one of your _awesome_ adventures, and Sakura-chan can use genjutsu for all the awesome effects, and, and, and can we, can we? Please?"

Robin blinked down at him and smiled. "Have I told you about Skypeia yet?"

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi sat down with Robin on the wall that surrounded the house of the Inuzuka clan head, ready to watch the genin teams compete. Somehow, Gai's team had been brought as well (maybe it was because of the mess with the chunin exams; it had drawn them all closer), and all four teams were going to be putting on plays. Kakashi was surprised to find out that Kiba, the boy holding the party, was actually something of a movie buff. This was good in the fact that he preferred being behind the camera, which translated well for his shinobi training; he was supposed to be working as a tracking and espionage specialist, after all.

Since Kiba was watching and judging, Haku had agreed to help out Team Ten. He and Hinata got along quite well, actually.

He watched each of the groups go on the stage one by one, putting on performances meant for only a few people, nothing too elaborate in any case. Then his team came on.

Naruto was putting his skills with shadow cloning and henge to good use. The storyline was absurd, but then again, most of Robin's stories were, no matter how true. He'd been conned into pretty much every role barring that of the swordsman (whose role had been taken by Sasuke) and the navigator (whose role had been taken by Sakura). Before they put the show on, they'd told the audience that the story would be told from Robin's perspective, which lead to, of all things, Robin being the only character not portrayed. Instead, all her dialogue was held up on boards by a pair of clones, and all lines addressed to her were addressed to the audience instead. Kakashi wasn't sure how Sakura was keeping a genjutsu up for so long for the background, but it was a small price to pay for seeing all of… this.

Moreover, Naruto had to play at least a dozen different animals, like the giant snake, the weird bird, the cloud fish and other creatures (which Robin said looked accurate, from what she'd told the genin, no matter how impossible they seemed), and had gotten in practice as moving around in nonhuman henge, which would be helpful.

They weren't the best actors there, but they had good special effects and a good story on their side.

Needless to say, his team won. Maybe not the best actor awards (that went to Ino, unsurprisingly), but they did get awards for having the best play overall.

He hid the fact that he felt inordinately proud of them.


	16. Butterfly Wings

**A/N: Warning, Hinata's train of mind tends to… wander a little. Also, the first scene was really hard for me to write.**

o.o.o.o.o

Hinata watched anxiously as her father spoke calmly with the pirate woman. She was convinced that the whole situation was a problem.

Well, at least Hanabi was keeping quiet. The girl was sweet as honey, bless her, but she didn't have much tact, despite her growing political prowess. She had an alarming and rather saddening tendency to say things that were hurtful without realizing it, which is why Hanabi rarely spoke without putting an excessive amount of thought into what she said first. Hinata herself had the opposite problem; she couldn't stand up for herself very well at all, and finding something hurtful to say to someone was near impossible.

Then again, if anyone tried to seriously hurt Hanabi, Hinata was liable to lay them flat on their backs with a destroyed spleen in half a second. Thankfully, that had only happened once.

What? He was trying to drag her little sister into a dark alley when the girl was four years old and extremely tired and disoriented from a festival! Who knows what such a depraved soul could have done?

At least Otō-san had looked at her in approval that. Protection really was the best use for the Gentle Fist, no matter what she'd heard some people say.

Robin had greeted Neji when she'd come into the compounds in a semi-formal kimono. They'd even struck up a short conversation before Robin had moved on to get to dinner on time. Hinata hadn't been aware that they knew each other.

She blinked and looked up from her food when she heard her name, realizing that Robin had just mentioned something about her. She kept quiet, but was suddenly paying much more attention to what was being said.

"…said that Hinata was the best kunoichi in taijutsu, and the second best overall. Sakura said that she believed your daughter would have been the best had she been allowed to utilize your family's Kekkei Genkai." Robin was saying.

Hinata blushed a little. Knowing that one of her classmates believed her to be the best like that…

"What of the Uchiha and the Uzumaki boys? Did they have anything to say?" Otō-san was asking.

Robin chuckled softly. "Ah, well, Sasuke does not speak very much, and he has a slightly larger ego than his abilities warrant. He did say that he thought she had a tendency to hold back, though. It took some prompting for Naruto to remember who she was, but when he did, he agreed that she was 'pretty good,' in his own words. Of course, Naruto has his sights set on the Hokage's seat…"

"I see."

Hinata held her breath as her father's eyes met her own, judging, but holding at least a little approval. It was better than she had expected. She ducked her head back down, looking at her food.

The adults started talking some more, and they landed on the topic of Neji-nii-san. Hinata blinked, listening closely.

"Yes, he mentioned something about your chakra twisting about itself. I believe he described it as swirling motion."

Robin nodded, a thoughtful look on her face. "Ah, really? I hadn't known. It's certainly rather interesting to know. If… hmm… I suppose it could be a result of the fruit…"

The Hyuuga looked at her. The fact that she herself had not known was unexpected. Hanabi voiced the question on all their minds. "A fruit, Nico-san?"

"Aa." Robin nodded, still with a far-off look on her face. "An Akuma no Mi. They are characterized by the odd swirling patterns and often unnatural coloration of their skins. They have a tendency to have rather overpowered side effects. I'm afraid further information would be classified."

She smiled.

Hiashi hid his frown. "I see."

Then Robin turned to Hanabi. "You are Hanabi-san, right?"

Hanabi nodded, a little surprised.

"While I have heard much of your father around the village and plenty about your sister from Naruto and his friends, I have no knowledge of you. Would you care to enlighten me?"

Hanabi blinked, glanced at her father and sister, and then started talking, slowly. "My name is Hyuuga Hanabi. I am seven years old and I'm currently top of my class in the academy. I like training and, um," she blushed a little, though not as much as her sister sometimes did, "butterflies. I've got a few books on them in my room. It's called lepidoptery."

She looked like she was trying to find something else to say after the pride of a word like that, but eventually just settled on staring at her plate with her mouth tightly closed.

"That's wonderful. Do you have many friends?"

The silence was answer enough.

"…I see." Robin said quietly. Her smile had worn out a little. Her mouth was a subdued line across her face.

A slight cough broke the awkward silence, originating from Hiashi. The other three people at the table turned to look at him. "I have heard certain rumors filtering through the shinobi ranks recently. From what I have heard, you've gained quite the reputation, though the accounts may not be entirely true, judging by how outlandish they happen to be."

"Oh? Might I ask what those rumors may have consisted of?" Robin asked.

Hanabi and Hinata glanced at each other. Well, that was one way to get away from an uncomfortable subject.

"You appear to have convinced half the nukenin on the continent that you're a descendant of the Devil himself." Hiashi deadpanned. "On top of which, they believe you to be capable of sending them to and afterlife full of pain and suffering, surrounded by a forest of blood-drenched hands."

The sisters stared at him. Robin chuckled. "Quite the gossip, aren't you?"

They could almost hear a few muffled giggles through the walls.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin and Kakashi stood in a training ground, facing towards each other. Robin had her arms crossed under her chest, the normal way, and Kakashi had his book out. The three genin were nowhere to be seen.

A muffled noise sounded as Kakashi snapped his book closed and looked up at Robin. "Right, the genjutsu's up now. Unless there's a genjutsu specialist, the Hokage, or Sasuke with his Sharingan out there, no one's going to be seeing anything here."

Robin nodded. "I appreciate it. Now, you said you wanted to see some more examples of my powers, correct? Is there anything in particular?"

Kakashi smiled, but it seemed a little mischievous. "Can I see the wings first?"

Robin smiled back, as she was wont to do. "But of course."

She raised her hands to her shoulders, in her normal state of focus. "Cien Fleur, Wings!"

The named appendages suddenly sprouted from her back. Arm over arm, hand over hand, a large pair of flesh-colored yet oddly elegant wings were waving around behind her. "I used to be able to hold these for only five seconds at a time. Granted, it was while I was gliding down from a rather tall bridge, but I would still say that holding it as I am is a great improvement."

The wings dissolved in a flurry of petals. "Forty seven seconds has been my best so far, though I have not had much opportunity to experiment, nor have I had a chance to put them into practice. I believe those chakra exercises that you suggested to me aided me quite a bit."

Kakashi eye-smiled. "Glad to be of help. I thought it didn't take you any power to sprout the arms though? How do you have a time-limit?"

Robin thought for a few seconds and then walked over to a rock the size of her head. She held it out to Kakashi. "Hold this out in front of you, with only one hand. Do a few arm-curls, if you want."

The Jounin did as he was told. Ninja or not, his arm was starting to get tired. His forte was his speed, not his physical strength. After about a minute and a half, he finally asked. "What's the point of this?"

"Put down the rock and I'll show you." Robin had gotten a different stone, about a third of the size of the first. She sprouted a trio of arms from the ground, picking up the stone that Kakashi had set down. "Each hand is supporting a third of the weight, correct?"

Kakashi nodded, wondering where she was going with this.

"Each hand feels that weight." She brought the stone closer the ground and back up again. "In that one movement, it felt as though I'd lifted this rock," She held up the smaller stone she'd gotten, "With one hand three times."

Kakashi blinked. "Really? It's that simple?"

Robin held up a hand, making an iffy motion. "It's a little more complicated than that, as the amount of use that I've put my powers through has minimized my wasted energy, but that is what it was like at the beginning. As a result, I don't have to put quite so much effort into doing things like this, but… in any case, what you've told me about this 'chakra' has actually made me much more efficient in distributing my arms, especially the idea of channeling chakra to the arms to make them stronger."

She smiled and lifted a hand straight above her head. Arms grew out of palms, all the way up to a branch about thirty feet above their heads. Robin grabbed it, grinned at Kakashi, and swung herself up to sit in the tree.

"Well, are you going to follow me or not?"

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N:** **In other news, I've written a slew of one-shots and story pilots recently. Also, this story just cracked fifty thousand words, the second I've written to do so. Review in honor of this milestone, if nothing else.**


	17. Six Little Children in a Meadow

**A/N: Here are the reasons I chose Robin's chakra alignments:**

**Lightning and Water: Irony, pure and simple. Enel's attacks and simply being a Devil Fruit user who wouldn't be expected to use water attacks. That's pretty much it.**

**Here are the reasons I didn't choose the others:**

**Earth: It's overused as an alignment, so I didn't want to add it in. Plus… Doton: Domu…**

**Fire: I chose the electricity first, giving her fire would have made her too much like Sasuke. Also, Robin's not very openly aggressive, so I figured the subtlety of water would be better than fire.**

**Wind: It's rare, so giving it to her would make her a Mary Sue. I don't want her to be a Mary Sue.**

**About Hanabi in the last chapter; I'm a little surprised at some of the responses I've gotten about how common Hanabi-bashing is. I, personally, was trying to make her seem sweet but a little socially inept. Maybe a little like kid-Gaara. She wants to make friends, but circumstances prevent her from doing so, in this case, the circumstances being that she is a main house Hyuuga.**

**One more thing, so that I can later prove that I planned a certain plot point well in advance (prior to chapter ten, at least, maybe as early as six or seven): HdvcsttbwttsSfKahatwhgik.**

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi stood across the field from Robin, who had her arms crossed in their usual position. Her eyelids rested halfway down, open enough to catch sight of any sudden movements, closed enough to keep her focus on her powers and any other eyes.

Kakashi himself had his hitai-ate up, though his eye was closed.

"Alright…" Kakashi said slowly, and then his eye shot open. "Now!"

"Veinte Fleur. Calendula!" Robin's hands sprouted in a circle, a defensive maneuver. The… less than optimal results were something she still hadn't gotten around to fixing, and was currently trying to rectify with Kakashi's aid.

Kakashi kept staring at the arms for several seconds more, and then snapped the headband down over his eye.

"Okay, that told me absolutely nothing."

Robin hummed a little in response, letting the arms disperse. "It's quite alright. We weren't expecting much, really."

Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I still say you could try developing that Haki ability you mentioned."

Robin shook her head. "I told you, it's near impossible without a teacher. I would have to wait until Rayleigh returned to Sabaody, and that might take the entirety of the two years allotted." She frowned. "Are you _quite_ sure that learning that earth technique you mentioned would be too difficult for me?"

Kakashi nodded. "Didn't I explain this already?"

"Humor me."

"We checked your chakra nature, and you have lightning and water, neither of which is particularly helpful in trying to learn an earth technique. Moreover, the technique is B-ranked, which means you'd have to be either a full Jounin, a Tokubetsu Jounin with the approval of at least one full Jounin, or have permission from at least three Jounin or higher to be allowed to even attempt learning the Doton: Domu no Jutsu. It's just not very efficient for you." He shrugged at the end.

Robin sat herself on the ground, watching as Kakashi lowered himself to do the same. "There is no similar version with Raiton or Suiton?"

"None that you could learn. Raiton no Yoroi is a closely guarded secret of Kumogakure, and I doubt you could learn it even then, since the only two known users were or are the Raikage. That makes them at least A-rank, probably S-rank. There are, as far as I know, no similar Suiton techniques that exist."

Robin nodded silently, having known all this beforehand. "I realize that. It is simply a little irritating that I am no closer to finding a solution than I was."

"Well, you're closer, just not…" Kakashi quieted down. "Right, not helping."

He tapped a finger on his leg, silently so as to not disturb the peace that rested around them. It was with reluctance that he chose to speak several minutes later. "You know, you could try wearing mesh armor. It might not work against some, well, most attacks, but it's good against blunter knives. I mean, we could still try Domu, but… besides, you need some non-defensive techniques that would work in close combat and without your devil fruit powers. I'd rather work on those."

"The mesh would do little against a bullet. Besides, it would only protect my original arms, not my copies."

"You mentioned the bullet lodged in your leg that one time. If you could learn to do that on purpose, carry objects over or double them, it could work to your advantage." Kakashi glanced over, knowing that they were just rehashing the old argument for the sake of the argument. He decided to toss in something new. "Besides, we still need to figure out a way for you to distribute the damage in a way that's less harmful to you."

Robin blinked and turned to look at the scarecrow. "Explain."

Kakashi grinned under the mask. "Look at it this way. Imagine you have five hundred arms blooming. One gets cut, and, like you told me, that cut spreads to you but not the rest of your arms."

"Correct."

Kakashi continued, getting a little into it. Granted, Kakashi was pretty happy to have someone to discuss techniques with, especially techniques in such an odd and genuinely unique field. "So, you still have four hundred and ninety nine arms bloomed, so their health should get transferred to you as well. Ergo, you're left with barely a scratch, a hundredth of the… _severity_ of the original cut."

"That could work, I suppose, but it never has before. There are so many variables in such a situation that I can't quite imagine how it would work, considering the fact that it never has before." Robin frowned, a little less than convinced.

"Maybe. It's worth trying, though, right?" He stood up, brushing himself off. "In the meantime, let's see if we can get you moving items."

Robin didn't bother getting up yet. "I can't quite say that these methods are ones that I particularly have much experience in. The only time I have ever successfully managed to transfer an object of any sort, it was the bullet. That was an accident, so I'm still not quite sure how."

Kakashi put his hands in his pockets, pacing around the meadow a little. "Well, maybe it has to do with positioning. The bullet was almost completely encased in your leg, so it could sort of be considered to be part of your general form or something. Like… if you suddenly were hoisted into the air or something, and your body frozen, it wouldn't fall off, like a cup of coffee or something. It would still be there."

"By that logic, my clothes would be doubled as well." Robin pointed out.

"Useful if you're going to be making those full bodied clones." Kakashi countered, the grin on his face a little obvious.

Robin sent one of her own back, her mouth in that peculiar half smile that kept people questioning. "I suppose. How should we test that?"

Kakashi crouched down and grabbed a pebble, tossing it to Robin. She caught the small rock easily.

"Hold your hand in a fist around it, then try doubling. We'll start there, and if it works, we'll move on up."

o.o.o.o.o

Sakura tugged on Robin's arm, pulling her towards a specific training ground. Close behind them were the boys.

"Sakura-chan? Maybe we could go a bit more slowly?" Naruto offered, scurrying to catch up.

"No way! I've got to show up Ino-buta once and for all! She keeps trying to call me out on things, so I've got to prove that I actually do know Robin and that I _have_ been getting better." Sakura shot back.

"We know. You've told us a dozen times." Sasuke droned, not particularly interested in getting there very early. Ino was _not_ one of his favorite people, not even close. Shikamaru and Chouji were tolerable, but Ino was still an irritating gnat of a blip on his radar.

Robin kept up easily with the young girl, a pleasant side effect of being both much older than her and taller than most adult men, shinobi or non.

"Oh, I don't mind. Are you having trouble keeping up?"

"No way!" Naruto suddenly started running faster.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Kakashi's eyes had never, throughout the entire exchange, left his book. His visible eye seemed bored, but if one studied the planes of his mask closely enough, one would see the smallest hint of an amused smile, ever so slight as it was.

"Ino-buta!" Sakura shouted as they burst into the clearing. The pink-haired girl was fairly charging.

"Forehead girl!" Ino spat with a grin that was surprisingly good-natured. "And here I was, thinking you would chicken out. Looks like you've actually got some confidence without me there to back you up. Then again, you have teammates so much stronger than you that they can protect you like the load you are."

Sakura's face was flushing an angry red. The two girls were gearing up for a shouting match, and the rest of the clearing's occupants drifted over to each other, unnoticed by the pair in the middle.

"Ino isn't hugging you." Naruto observed. Sasuke grunted a small agreement from next to him. "Normally she'd be all over you by now."

"Perhaps Yamanaka-chan has simply matured in the time that you haven't seen her?" Robin suggested.

"Or she's too caught up in that troublesome argument with Sakura." Guess. No, really, guess. You have three chances. The first two don't count.

"Oh?" Robin looked over at the boy that stood next to her. "You seem quite sure of that."

The boy mumbled something under his breath, and then spoke louder. "They've been like this for years. They barely notice anyone when they get in a fight with each other. It's all extremely troublesome."

"I see." Robin turned back to the girls, who were still hurling sarcasm, sadism, and snippiness at each other. "I think it's rather cute. They obviously care a lot about each other."

The others simply stared at her for a few seconds.

Asuma coughed, a little uncomfortable, and held out a hand to Robin. "Sarutobi Asuma. I've seen you around the Hokage Tower a few times when I was visiting my dad, but I never formally introduced myself."

"Nico Robin," She shook his hand. "Yes, I thought I recognized you."

"You're quite a bit taller than I thought though. Taller than most people I've met, actually. I can't really think of any shinobi I know personally that reach your height." He looked her up and down, finishing with a grin. "Those heels don't exactly shrink you either."

Kakashi looked up with a slight frown, a little confused. He glanced at Robin's chest, and then at Asuma, whose eyes were firmly fixed on the woman's face when they weren't darting around the clearing in true shinobi fashion. _I'm not sure that he's talking about her height_.

"It's not particularly tall back home. Why, one of my crew members is over eight feet tall, and he's been dead for the past fifty years. Another is over seven feet tall, and he's a cyborg."

Asuma blinked. "Wait, dead?"

"Oh yes." Robin smiled, eyes near closed. "He's a living skeleton, spent fifty years on his own on a ghost ship. It warped his mind, the poor dear. His social skills aren't quite what they used to be, and he's rather perverted now. His musical prowess has only grown, though, so it's a bit of a trade-off. He's quite sprightly for his age. Eighty-eight, and the oldest on the crew."

"Right…" Asuma turned away with a sweatdrop, looking at Kakashi. "Is she…?"

"It's completely true." Kakashi said with a grin, eye curving up. "She's quite the conversationalist, isn't she?"

"Ano… that's definitely one word for it." Asuma hedged.

"Equivocating? My, Asuma, you could be a politician with those skills." Kakashi teased.

"C'mon, Shikamaru. Please?" Naruto was begging Shikamaru for help in something. "You're the best we have for this kinda stuff."

"No. The punishment wouldn't be worth the end. Neither would the effort." Shikamaru turned over to lay on his back. He had, 'til then, been lying on his stomach, trying to carry on a Shogi game with Sasuke. That endeavor had ended within the three minutes that had consisted of the Jounin's conversation, as Sasuke was soundly trounced by the other genius.

"Again." Sasuke demanded. "I want a rematch."

"Nah, you're no good at this. It would take you at least a few months to last more than a few minutes against me without me holding back, like I was just now."

Sasuke stared. "You were going _easy_ on me?"

Shikamaru snorted, choosing to dodge the question as his eyes slid shut, ready to sleep. "Troublesome."

"Shika!" Naruto whined, tugging at the boy's sleeve. "Please help me with this? C'mon, I just need you to listen to it and point out the problems!"

"No."

A squeal signified the end of Sakura and Ino's fight as the blonde girl suddenly hugged Sasuke from the side. "Sasuke-kun! I missed you! Have you missed me? It must have been terrible, having just forehead girl as your only female company. I'd be happy to—kyaa!"

"Stay away from my Sasuke-kun!" Sakura tore Ino away from Sasuke, a glare on her face.

"Should we stop them?" Chouji had sidled up to Shikamaru.

"Nah, just leave them. I'd rather have them shouting at each other than nagging me." The Nara mumbled, half asleep already despite the noise.

Chouji glanced over at the Jounin-sensei and Robin, a little nervous about the fight taking place only a few feet away.

"Ano… Asuma-sensei?" He came a bit closer, but hugged his bag of chips a little more tightly to his body, like a comfort blanket. "Kakashi-sensei? Robin-san? Are you sure we should just let them fight like that?"

Kakashi glanced over for a second, barely, and turned back to his book. "Maa, it's fine. Just let them tire themselves out a little and they'll stop in favor of doing something else."

"It's good for them." Robin mentioned. "It's their way of showing affection, odd as it is. I remember quite a few similar fights from the ship between the cook and the first mate, though usually for significantly different reasons."

Asuma gave it a bit more thought, and then sighed. "Let them go at it a bit longer. If they don't stop in the next three minutes, we'll pull them apart."

Chouji had his doubts, but nodded his assent. He went back to the group and took his customary place by his best friend.

Said best friend was currently trying to teach Naruto how to play Shogi, and failing miserably.

"No, you troublesome _idiot_. The rook can't move like that." Shikamaru reached over the game board and moved one of Naruto's pieces back to the place that it had, presumably, occupied before.

"Think of each piece like a shinobi." Chouji offered his advice for wrapping your head around the rules. "And each move is like a jutsu. Some of the pieces can only use one or two moves, so they're only a genin. Some of them can use more, and they're like Chunin or Jounin. One piece is good at a lot of things, and it's like the Hokage. And then the most important piece is a civilian client, because it can't do a lot, but it's the piece that you have to protect because it can't protect itself. Maybe a daimyo, since it's got the Hokage protecting it."

Naruto stared at him. "Eh? Really? How did you come up with that explanation?"

Chouji shrugged. "I couldn't think of any foods I could use to describe it to myself, so I used our jobs since I knew those almost as well."

"Okay!" Naruto turned back to Shikamaru, who looked to be in need of a good face-palming. "I'm ready to try again! Thanks, Chouji!"

The learning process was quicker after that, but Naruto still made a number of mistakes. The girls stopped fighting without anyone noticing, as they'd all begun to focus on Naruto and Shikamaru's game. Shikamaru was a genius in the game, but Naruto was good enough at thinking on his feet that, once he'd gotten the hang of it, which took a remarkably long time, he could keep up with Shikamaru for several minutes.

This still wasn't quite good enough to keep Shikamaru away from his sleep for more than half an hour. By the end of all the arguments and little fits, all there really was in the clearing was six tired twelve year olds with a shogi board and some smiles (or indulgent smirks, in the case of Sasuke).

The three adults had been in quiet discussion a short ways away, and were all looking at the kids with fondness.

"Never thought I'd see them like this." Asuma admitted. "You know what I mean, right? Ino and Sakura getting along for once, and neither one of them fawning over the Uchiha, who isn't arguing with the Uzumaki, and Shikamaru actually putting in effort for something… Chouji's no different, though."

Kakashi chuckled. "You're right. We should probably be getting them back to their houses soon, though."

The three looked at each other. Robin was the one that spoke the words on everyone's minds. "I'm sure we can wait a bit longer."

"Yeah, you're right."

The kids were just _so_ cute!

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: SO CUTE! *Dabs at tears* Can't you just feel the love?**

***Cough* So… I can't actually think of much to do for Team Ten. They're pretty well adjusted, so there's really nothing for Robin to 'fix,' so to speak. So, you get some WAFF instead. I promise that the next chapter will be longer.**


	18. Catch Me If You Can

**A/N: I just need to remind you that I'm not doing much shipping in this story. There **_**is**_** talk of NaruHina here, but it's one-sided and just Robin's way of opening Hinata up to her later line of questioning. In any case, I don't want to hear complaints about shipping, since the adults only ever give off ship-tease as humor, and the genin are twelve. If the genin **_**do**_** date… again, they're **_**twelve**_**. The chances of a relationship surviving to adulthood aren't very good in any case. It's just… shipping is such a small part of fandom to me, that if I do have something there, it's negligible at best and…**

**Okay, what I'm trying to say is this: whether there are ships in this story or not, whether you support the ones given or not, I don't want to hear complaints about the story due to shipping.**

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi stared at the two women in front of him. The two _identical_ women. Two identical women with the same concentrated look on their face. Her face. Robin's face.

"I think I'll call it Cuerpo Fleur." Robin mused, allowing the double to disperse in the customary gust of sakura petals.

"Oh?" Kakashi came a bit closer.

"Body flower." Robin translated, looking over. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Could you replace yourself with one?" He asked. "You know, grow another body, sort of transfer your consciousness into it, and just disperse the original?"

Robin blinked, and then tilted her head to the side, pensive expression on her face. "A possibility, I suppose. If you could give me a minute…"

She closed her eyes, raising her hand up to her shoulders. Kakashi was graced to the extremely odd sight of a pair of arms sprouting from the ground, and a woman following up from the ground, as if she were simply getting out of a pool, not growing from the hard dirt. This woman, this double of Robin, also had closed eyes, and quickly raised her hands to her shoulders as well. Several seconds later, the original Robin dispersed.

She opened her eyes to see Kakashi openly staring at her. A quick glance down revealed that she wasn't missing any clothing, and so ruled that out as a reason for his unblinking eye. She looked back up at Kakashi. "Kakashi-san?"

His visible eye narrowed, and he tapped a finger to his chin. "How averse are you to learning the Kage Bunshin?"

o.o.o.o.o

Hinata blinked at Robin. Why was she at Team Eight's practice?

Kurenai and Robin were speaking quietly at the edge of the clearing, heads low and close together. Robin had that half-smile on her face, while Kurenai had a look that was similarly blank yet open.

Kiba muttered next to her, and the word 'creepy' was the only one she heard. Her eyes narrowed a little in thought, and then she decided on her plan of action. She turned her head to look at him straight on without activating her Byakugan, but widened her eyes until the entirety of the iris was revealed, though her eyebrows stayed in place. She kept her expression as blank and emotionless as she could.

He glanced over, did a double-take, and then moved a few inches away from her and towards Shino, shuddering a little.

"Please stop that, Hinata-chan. You know I don't like it."

Hinata stayed as she was for a second longer, and then let her eyes close back to more normal size. She smiled softly. "R-remember, Kiba-kun. The-there are always p-people who can h-hear you, n-no matter how q-quiet you think you are."

"I know…" He grumbled. Shino, on his other side, stayed quiet and made no move to show that he had heard the exchange, but likely had despite that.

The two women finally finished speaking, and came towards them. Kurenai clapped her hands. "Alright, kids. Robin's agreed to act as, well, not _bait_, but she'll be going off into the woods and you guys will be tracking her through. She has a few tricks that are similar to things that future enemy ninja may try to use."

Robin nodded at them, arms crossed. "I'll go in ahead of you and you'll follow after about five minutes."

The three nodded, and Akamaru yipped from Kiba's head. Robin's half-smile grew, if only slightly, and she turned, heading into the forest.

The first thing Kiba noticed when he went into the forest was that Robin's scent was, for lack of a better term, jumping around. There were times when he lost her scent, and found it suddenly reappearing about ten feet away. Slowly, he found that the gaps began to get larger, and by a half hour in, they had more than tripled. Hinata didn't want to turn her Byakugan on yet, and Shino said that his bugs _had_ gotten onto Robin, but that she herself had somehow disappeared. He said that he would have compared it to Kage Bunshin, which Kurenai-sensei had shown them before, but with an odd twist. There was a heavier feeling to them, according to the bugs. The Kage Bunshin that Kurenai had shown them had an airy feel, being made out of chakra itself; the skin was there as an actual skin, not just a chakra-made barrier.

Shino's main methods were failing, though he had clouds of his Kikaichu out searching; Kiba's were keeping up, though barely; Hinata still hadn't tried hers.

"Hinata-chan, I know you don't like using your Byakugan near her because it gives you a headache, but we'll have to deal with worse stuff once we're taking real missions."

"Indeed." Shino spoke up. "You must acclimate yourself to working in harsh conditions. Why? Once we are set to working in the field—"

"Shino, I just said that. Besides, we've been over this, dude. Stop nitpicking." Kiba rolled his eyes, before he suddenly caught a few yips from Akamaru.

"…what?" He dropped down to the ground, sniffing around the area where Akamaru was. After a few seconds, he stood back up. "Dear Kami, you're right."

"Kiba-kun?" Hinata came up from behind him. "What did Akamaru find?"

"The trail splits. It's just as strong both ways, too." Kiba ran a hand through his hair in frustration, knocking his hood back.

"We could—" Shino started, but Kiba cut him off again.

"Hinata." He turned to look at the lone kunoichi. "Byakugan. Now. Please."

Hinata stared and then slowly nodded, bringing her hands up into a sign. "B-Byakugan!"

Her vision spiraled outwards, catching everything within the nearest fifty seven and a half meters. She blinked, but realized that no one was there. "Sorry, Kiba-kun. There's no one there."

Kiba cursed under his breath, and then put a hand up to his face, rubbing the heel into his eyes. "Okay… Hinata, you come with me; Shino, you follow Akamaru. Keep a line of communication open with your bugs. I know we can't understand them, but…"

"The plan is… decent." A bug flew away from Shino, one landing on each of them. "How long are we to search prior to returning to this spot?"

Kiba shrugged. "No clue. Let's go with… half an hour? That should do."

Half an hour later…

"Nothing on your end either, huh?" Kiba plopped down on a log, and his teammates followed him down a moment later. Akamaru promptly dropped into his lap. "I think we've failed."

"Oh, you have." Kurenai stepped out from behind a tree, arms crossed. "Fortunately for you, even I had a little trouble tracking Robin once she got serious."

"So… where is she, then?" Kiba asked, knowing that Shino would take too long about it and Hinata was probably still berating herself about failing.

"I honestly don't know. We said that we'd meet back up at the starting point at the end, but I'm not sure if she knows that it's over yet." Kurenai turned and began to head back. The three genin followed.

As they neared the clearing that they had started in, they heard a somewhat familiar voice discussing something they couldn't understand but still found quite disturbing with Robin.

"—bloom hundreds of just the skull, but not the jaw, you might be able to go ahead with the giant head, but—"

"But it wouldn't look natural like the arms and legs do when I make those. It is a commendable scare tactic, however. Psychological warfare is effective if done correctly." Robin finished for the man. She spun around to face them, one arm holding a notebook. "Ah, hello Yuuhi-san. Hinata-chan, Inuzuka-kun, Aburame-kun."

Hinata realized that her name was the only one that had been used familiarly, but attributed it to the fact that Robin had already met several other Hyuuga, and likely hadn't met more members of the others families.

"Hello, Nico-san." Kurenai nodded at her. "Kakashi-san. May I ask why you are here?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I set my genin to doing a few D-ranks for a while, so I've got some free time."

"So…" Kiba edged into the conversation. "Why were you talking about skulls and giant heads?"

Kakashi and Robin glanced at each other, and then Kakashi smiled. Hinata wasn't quite sure how any of them could tell that he was smiling, as even she had unadjusted eyesight, but there was just something about his eye and the crinkles in his mask. You could tell that he was smiling, with something akin to condescension. "Nothing to worry your pretty little head about, little genin."

Kiba spluttered at that, while Hinata swallowed a small giggle that didn't really take much action to try to escape in the first place. Shino made no move to comment, but Hinata had a feeling that he was smiling behind his coat.

"Ahem." Kurenai coughed, bringing all their attention back to her. "In any case, what do you have to say for the training?"

"Er…" Hinata dithered. "Th-thank you, Nico-san."

Kurenai sighed. "I… well, yes, you should thank Nico-san for her aid, but that wasn't what I was asking. I meant to ask what troubles you had and what kinds of questions you needed to have answered."

"Oh." Hinata blushed.

"I had a lot of trouble because your scent was missing a lot of the time." Kiba started them off. "It just jumped, like some sort of Kawarimi, but you just sort of popped from one place to the other instead of pulling yourself across the distance. If you were using Kawarimi, there would still be some scent left, though not nearly as much as if you'd walked across. Oh, and when your path split. That was weird too."

"Shino?" Kurenai motioned for the boy to speak. "How about you?"

Shino moved his head slightly, contemplating. "I found your evasion of my insects quite confusing, especially in concerns to how you managed to lose one of them. Was the version you that we originally met a bunshin of some sort?"

"No." Robin answered with a smile. She didn't elaborate.

"D-do you have s-some sort of teleportation technique?" Hinata offered her own guess. "N-not shunshin, but a genuine t-teleportation?"

Robin tilted her head to the side. "Something like that, I suppose."

Hinata felt more than heard the muted growl of frustration from Kiba next to her.

Kurenai sighed. "Well, I guess training is over for today. Robin, do you mind coming back next week?"

"Not at all." Robin inclined her head.

"Alright then. Kiba, Shino, Hinata, you're dismissed."

Kiba darted off almost immediately, and Shino followed, albeit at a more sedate pace. Hinata planned to head off after them, but turned back when she heard her name called.

"Robin-san? W-what do you need of me?"

"Ah… just come here and sit down for now. I would like to speak to you about a few things." Robin patted the ground next to her. Kakashi had wandered off at some point, and Kurenai had apparently left with him to discuss joint-team training exercises.

Hinata lowered herself to the ground, sitting in a perfect seiza. Robin smiled at her from her position sitting cross-legged, an elbow on her knee and her chin in her palm.

"I was speaking with Team Seven the other day." Robin started off quite simply, though Hinata had a feeling that that would soon change. "And your name came up. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to see you similarly to the other students, although they did admit that you weren't a fangirl like many of the other girls in your class. However, Sakura appeared to find something amusing concerning you."

Hinata felt herself scrunch up a little. Why would…?

"I asked her afterwards, and she said that most of the boys hadn't noticed, but she and Ino were always on the lookout for any girl who could possibly challenge them for Sasuke. You were apparently one of the top contenders for an 'enemy position' for quite a while, but then they realized something rather interesting."

Hinata's heart dropped to her stomach. If Sakura and Ino, and there was something about Sasuke… Oh, no. She knew exactly where this was heading.

"Sakura seemed quite convinced that you have, or at least had, quite the crush on Naruto-kun." There was a certain enjoyment in Robin's tone, one that indicated that she was having far too much fun teasing the young kunoichi, who was blushing furiously.

"I…" Hinata faltered. Robin chuckled.

"In any case, Team Eight and Team Seven are going to have some joint training exercises next week, so you'll get to see him."

Hinata nodded, eyes wide and staring at the pirate woman. "Was th-that all, Robin-san?"

"Mm… no." Robin's hand drifted down to the grass, toying with the blades. "I actually wanted to speak with you about your sister as well."

Hinata blinked. "What about H-Hanabi-chan?"

Robin was silent for a few seconds, staring out towards the forest. "Your sister… she doesn't have many friends her own age, does she?"

Hinata bit her lip and shook her head. "No. Hanabi h-has led a very isol-lated lifestyle. She s-started at the academy two years ago, but the other students avoid her."

"Ah. Do you know why?" Robin's question was serious and it wasn't the usual kind of question that Hinata heard from adults. It wasn't that Robin knew the answer and was testing Hinata's knowledge; Robin honestly didn't know and wanted Hinata's opinion on the matter.

"Ha… Hanabi is very h-headstrong." Hinata started, trying to find a way to word her thoughts. "She is stubborn and w-willful, a-and I don't think h-her social skills are very g-good outside of f-formal situations." She bit her lip. "She is p-prideful, and many of the children she tries to be-befriend turn away b-because she a-accidentally insults them or b-beats them in a spar too easily. W-when she tries t-to give someone advice, she often s-says it in a way that m-makes the other children b-believe that she thinks th-that she's b-better than them, and th-the fact that she is the s-secondary heir t-to the H-Hyuuga clan doesn't h-help matters."

Hinata finished up, staring at the ground and poking her pointer fingers together.

"I see." There was a smile in Robin's voice, and Hinata looked up. "I mentioned the problem that I believed I'd seen to Kakashi's students, and Naruto had a rather interesting idea."

Hinata blinked. "What?"

"Naruto is quite close to the Hokage's grandson. He and your sister are in similar positions of prestige, but have fundamentally different personalities." Robin smiled and levered herself up off the ground. "I'd like to introduce them to each other, as I'm sure that he will try to help your sister, out of stubbornness if nothing else."

Hinata frowned. "Are you s-sure?"

Robin's smile promised both nothing and everything, and had a certain air to it that was added by her position. She stood tall over Hinata, who was still on the ground, and the sun was directly behind her head. "Quite."

Hinata nodded and stood up, following the tall woman out of the clearing.

o.o.o.o.o

**I will listen to complaints about plot progression, characterization, my writing style, and even chapter length.**

**I will ignore requests for faster updates, requests/demands for bashing, complaints about power levels (I have had it up to **_**here**_ **with those), and flames.**

**150th reviewer: ****Shadow Realm Triforce**** requested the following:**

What about a prank war between the teams? Or, just one massive prank by the teams?

**Well, ladies and gentlemen, I've done my best with that. Still, I keep getting prompts that want to devolve into full subplots, not just omake.**

**200th reviewer will also get an omake. After that we go by hundreds (300th, 400th, etc.)**

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto poked Shikamaru again. "C'mon, please? You know I'll just keep poking you until you agree."

"No. Shut up and let me sleep."

Naruto frowned, and his eyes caught a glimpse of pale blonde hair. He grinned. "I'll get Ino to agree with me then."

Shikamaru's eyes snapped open. "What."

But it was too late. Naruto was already gone. Shikamaru thought about stopping him, but decided that it would be useless.

And so the prank war began.

o.o.o.o.o

**Team Ten and Team Seven vs. Team Eight and Team Gai**

"And so the terms are agreed." Naruto and Neji shook hands.

Kurenai stared, and then glanced over at the other sensei there. "Kakashi, Gai, Asuma? Are you _sure_ this is a good idea?"

Kakashi glanced up over his book. "What? Oh! Yeah, it's fine. We've even got an impartial judge."

"Wait, what?" Asuma glanced over, shifting his cigarette to one side of his mouth. "They actually need a judge?"

"Yep. Robin's going to be scoring them since she's an adult they all trust but isn't on any of the teams."

"Yosh! This is a most youthful competition! I cannot wait to see how our students complete it!"

Kurenai bit her lip. "I'm not so sure about that, Gai."

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto stepped out from behind a tree, right into Neji's path on his way to the training grounds. The Hyuuga's eyes narrowed, preparing for the attack that he knew was coming.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto called, and hundreds of clones sprang up around the two. Neji's eyes flickered on, ready to take anything Naruto was going to send his way.

"Harem no Jutsu!"

Except that.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin tapped a pen to her chin, and then decided. "Four out of ten. It was effective, but too simple and didn't involve enough teamwork."

o.o.o.o.o

Ino grinned. This was one instance where she would allow her 'victim' to remain awake while she took control of their body.

TenTen tried to move, but couldn't. _Sorry, TenTen. Looks like I've got you._

TenTen's body moved across the clearing, over to a meditative Neji. She moved her hand over to his shoulder, waiting for him to turn his head towards her. Her cheeks would have been burning if she was in control of her body, simply due to the thoughts that were running through Ino's mind as she contemplated her next move.

"TenTen? What are you—?" He was cut off as the hand on his shoulder roughly shoved him to the ground. A second later, TenTen was straddling him, hands holding his wrists and face a mere inch from his.

"T-TenTen?" He cursed himself for sounding like his cousin at that moment, but due to the position he and his teammate were currently in, he felt that it was somewhat justified.

There was a lazy, cattish, lustful smirk on TenTen's face, and her lips brushed against his cheek as she came closer to his ear. "Well, Neji-ku~n?" She crooned. "Enjoying yourself?"

"I… TenTen are you alright?"

Suddenly, Neji was no longer in control of his body. In half a second, he had flipped over and was pinning TenTen to the ground in the exact same manner that she had been pinning him earlier.

Ino released the jutsu in that second, and TenTen's face colored. "Neji, I'm so sorry! Ino used her mind switch on me and…" She trailed off, looking at his wide eyes. "Neji?"

"I think I'm being held by a Nara."

Shikamaru released his technique, allowing Neji to fall heavily onto TenTen, who really didn't mind as much as she should have.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin chuckled into the palm of her hand. "Oh my. Eight out of ten. Good usage of teamwork and playing on other's emotions, but it was with people they were used to working with, not the other team."

o.o.o.o.o

Kiba looked at Lee. "Alright, fast as you can with your weights and without your gates."

Lee nodded, and in less than thirty seconds, he was back with a pile of clothing.

"Ready Akamaru?"

The next morning found Sasuke staring at all his supposedly clean clothes, which now smelt of dog urine.

o.o.o.o.o

"Rather crude, but I suppose it was alright. They did work with each other instead of their teammates. Six out of ten."

o.o.o.o.o

Hinata had been convinced by TenTen that this was the best way to pull this off.

As she heard the sounds of Chouji finally feeling the laxatives in the cupcakes she'd sent, she felt guilty. Really guilty.

o.o.o.o.o

"Five out of ten."

o.o.o.o.o

Six figures stood on the outside walls of the Hyuuga, careful not to draw attention to themselves from the guards.

The next morning, the walls of the Hyuuga complex were completely pink.

Naruto really knew how to use paint in a prank.

o.o.o.o.o

"Nine out of ten. They fulfilled the criterion completely, but only got two of the opponents."

o.o.o.o.o

Six shinobi woke to found their journals being handed around the academy, their weapons replaced with toothpicks and rubber, their furniture glued to the ceiling, their underwear flying from flagpoles, their breakfast cereal infested with bugs, and their front _and_ back doors smeared with catnip and tuna.

o.o.o.o.o

"…Is there anything higher than a ten?"

o.o.o.o.o

The prank war only ended after both sides had tired of three weeks of pranks.

"You know, this really improved their stealth and trap-building skills." Kakashi noted, turning a page in his book. "And their teamwork, of course."

Asuma stared. "You mean you planned for that?"

"Heh, no."


	19. Please Stop Laughing, It's Embarrassing

**A/N: Alright, I normally don't do things like this… but this is getting ridiculous. People keep asking about things that I felt were perfectly clear, but apparently there are still some people in denial or something.**

**One, I have NO PLANS for ANY romance. Tons and tons of shiptease? Yeah, okay, that's fun to write. But people keep asking about actual pairings, and I thought I'd said pretty early on that inter-dimensional romances just didn't pan out. And pairings between the genin? They're twelve. Okay, some kids get into romance at that age, and as shinobi they're expected to mature faster… but they've also got more responsibilities, and how many relationships last from that young to actual adulthood? How many first loves actually work out? So for everyone still asking about pairings, the answer is no. At most, I might put in Asuma/Kurenai, and that reasoning pretty much amounts to "It's canon. They were engaged and Kurenai had Asuma's kid after he died."**

**Two, the other Straw Hats are NOT coming at any point other than the epilogue. I mean, okay, I didn't make that as clear as I did the first, but they're seriously not coming to the ninja-verse. You'll have to wait for the last chapter for them to show up at all, and for the epilogue for them to come to the Elemental Nations. There will still be One Piece cameos like Shakky earlier, but no Straw Hats. I cannot stress that enough.**

**As for everyone asking about other characters, like Orochimaru, the Sand Siblings, Akatsuki, etc… have they shown up in canon prior to the Chunin Exams? No. So why would they have shown up any earlier here? Chances are, if you're asking, I already have a plan. Just assume that I have already planned it out. For everything. It's probably true. I even have plans for Hanabi and Konohamaru. I have plans for meetings with all three main 'public' Akatsuki teams (artists, zombies, Kisame and Itachi). I have plans for at least three major fights in the prelims. Just trust that I'll get around to it.**

o.o.o.o.o

Hanabi and Konohamaru hadn't exactly hit it off, per se. Actually, each was exactly what the other had the most problems with. Konohamaru was loud, obnoxious, determined, perverted, and tactless. Hanabi was quiet, subtle, noble, prideful, and her grasp on the concept of tact was only a sliver better than Konohamaru's.

He sent angry insults her way in seconds, like a bull in a china shop, where you could glare and retort as often as you liked, and he wouldn't back down. You could smash the bull with a broom as many times as you deemed it necessary, but it wouldn't do anything.

She retaliated with poison jabs that acted like a particularly slow and painful poison; you didn't quite understand what happened at first, and after a few seconds you realized just how horrendously vicious the attack sent your way had been. By then, it was too late to retaliate, and Hanabi was smiling your way victoriously and the pretty, harmless-looking, petite, white snake had already slithered off to places unknown.

Naruto found it hilarious.

Sakura and Sasuke, who sometimes found him talking to the two, were mostly annoyed, though Sakura giggled about it being cute sometimes. Naruto had dragged them to watch the little spats more than once, his reason being that he needed to watch over Konohamaru

Hinata was often too busy blushing from how close Naruto was to actually pay attention, but when she was… well, she was just happy that her sister was finally interacting with someone her own age. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing, but she had noticed that Konohamaru's presence had a tendency to bring out an almostmischievous side of her sister, one that she rarely saw. The girl's insults when it came to Konohamaru weren't mere accidents, like most of her previous slights had been. No, these were calculated verbal strikes, despite being only seven years old.

Kiba was much the same as Naruto, though he had taken to also bringing popcorn, cheering on whomever he felt for at the moment, usually Hanabi due to being on the team of said girl's older sister, and even 'declaring' fights and commentating as if it were an actual spar. Shino's response was… unreadable. The two boys were often just nearby whenever Hanabi came to Hinata in a huff about whatever idiocy Konohamaru had tried to draw her into this time.

Kakashi and Kurenai inevitably got dragged in to watch after their teams. Kurenai's general reaction was exasperation, while Kakashi hid behind his book, smiling away.

And of course, if Kakashi and Team Seven were there…why wouldn't Robin be? As for her, a few small chuckles and her constant half-smiles were enough to show people that she at least approved.

Neither Hanabi nor Konohamaru was willing to admit it, but they actually enjoyed each other's company. Udon and Moegi were still closer to Konohamaru, but even they faded into the background when Hanabi entered the picture and drove yet another stake into their friend's pride.

It was an odd method, and to many, it would appear self-contradictory. However, there was a strange sort of logic to the process. Hanabi learned how to insult Konohamaru in the most potent ways she possibly could at her age… and as a result, learned exactly what to avoid. Konohamaru was easily insulted, quick to anger, and made no move to hide his emotions at all. He was the perfect barometer for Hanabi to find out just how far was too far. And that line seemed to be one that she crossed rather frequently, even when she wasn't trying to.

It was a good system all around, but it did lead to a small problem or two. For you see, dear readers, Hanabi and Konohamaru had the unfortunate tendency to tune out most of the people around them when they argued. Of course, this meant that if they were simply walking along, they occasionally ran into someone, usually someone much older than them. It was really their own fault that they ran into the boy with the face paint and Suna hitai-ate. They smashed into the back of black-clothed legs, which quickly turned.

Hanabi had, in a reaction that was by now quite automatic, bowed to the older boy, uttered her apology, and made to move on down the road. Konohamaru rolled his eyes at her and tried to do the same. Neither got more than a step down the road. Konohamaru started to choke in an exaggerated fashion as a gloved hand grabbed the neck of his shirt and pulled him back, and the noise drew Hanabi to turn around and glare. She wasn't quite sure who to glare at until she had finished turning, but the glare was ready prepared nonetheless.

"What do you think you're doing, Suna-nin?" She spoke coldly, and pulsed her chakra in an irregular pattern that her sister had taught her as a signal; she called it a Morse code, Hanabi's pattern being the spelling of her name, to call directly to Hinata should the younger girl ever be in trouble. The pattern was made in such a way that it seemed like the chakra flicker was that of a child in natural distress.

"You might've apologized, but your little boyfriend di—"

"Boyfriend?!"

Kankuro paused in the middle of his sentence at the simultaneous disgusted shouts that came from both of the children. He looked at the face of the boy he held, scrunched up in distaste, and down at the horrified girl that stood before him. He couldn't help it.

Kankuro started to laugh.

He wasn't all that fond of children, really. Maybe it was a side effect of his little brother becoming a maniac at the tender age of six. Maybe it was a side effect of growing up as the Kazekage's son, expected to deal with snobbish civilian noble kids that couldn't throw a punch through a sheet of paper. Maybe it was a side effect of having to deal with other kids that he did want to play with avoiding him like the plague due to the other two reasons. The reason wasn't quite important, though, as he was incapable of doing anything but laughing at the moment. Children they may have been, but anyone that adamant about not being in a relationship would bring a smile to the faces of those watching.

That was how Temari found him, on his knees, arms wrapped around his abdomen, and practically crying while four Academy-age children watched in confusion.

She glanced at her brother. She stared at the kids. She closed her eyes for a second as she rubbed at her temples. "Okay, what happened?"

"You know this guy?" The brat with the goggles and beady eyes demanded.

"Yeah. He's my brother." It wasn't that she was ashamed of him, exactly, it was just… finding him doing stupid things like this was just way too common. "Mind telling me why he's acting like a hyena on LSD?"

"What's LSD?" Three of the children were staring at her with innocent curiosity. The fourth one, a girl with pale eyes, was frowning as if she thought she might know what Temari was talking about, but couldn't quite remember.

"That's not important." Temari dismissed the question. She'd had plenty of practice dismissing information as 'irrelevant' with a tone implying that she was professional and not just dismissing the information because she was embarrassed to answer, changing the topic without drawing suspicion onto herself.

Kami, that skill had come in useful. When Gaara came up to her one day a few years ago and asked why Shukaku said she smelt like blood that day, but different… she was glad she'd managed to shove that conversation off onto Baki. So, _so, __**so**_ glad. She did _not_ want to be the one in charge of teaching Gaara the facts of life.

Back to her interrogation. "What I want to know is: why my brother is currently laughing himself to death on the ground in the middle of the street and you four are the only ones around?"

"He's going to _die_ of laughter?" The little girl with the pigtails and blush squealed in horror, the boys quickly joining her. The white-eyed girl looked like she wanted to roll her eyes, but settled for sending them a disparaging glare.

"No, he isn't. Now, answer the question before I have to ask again." Temari was glad to be graced with a naturally commanding presence. It was probably her father's influence, as Gaara was much the same—likely due to Shukaku, though he seemed intimidating even without taking that into account—though it seemed like Kankuro was more likely to become the kind of leader that decided to take his team into a bar one night and wake up the next morning to find that they had all been banned from the village along with 'their' pet giraffe and three wild moose. Popular, but not exactly striking the fear of failure into the hearts of the men under his command.

"Um…" The boy in the glasses with the runny nose started. Temari, unwilling to lose the information source she had only just tapped, like a maple tree for syrup, fixed him with a glare that promised pain if he didn't fess up soon. Of course, being in a foreign village meant that she wasn't going to even _touch_ any of them unless they tried to kill her or something equally ridiculous, but they didn't need to know that.

"Hanabi and Konohamaru were arguing again," Sniff, rub nose, "And they kind of walked into him. Then Hanabi apologized, but Kono didn't, so your brother grabbed Kono's shirt and dragged him back, and," another sniff, "Then Hanabi asked him what he was doing and signaled her sister to come, but he said something and called Kono her boyfriend, so they yelled at him for a second and he just kind of stared for a minute and then started laughing." He rubbed at his nose again. "Then Hanabi's sister showed up, but we told her it wasn't a problem anymore, so she went back to her team."

Temari pinched the bridge of her nose. She was sixteen, a kunoichi, an adult as far anyone was concerned. She shouldn't feel like this when faced with her brother. Her brother who, at fourteen, a shinobi, was _also_ considered an adult. He shouldn't be acting like this.

At least the wheezes were starting to slow down.

At that moment, a boy with hair the color of… well, some color like Sodium ethyl xanthate, honestly, came running around the corner. She'd been in her brother's poisons workshop enough times to recognize certain chemicals, and that one had been a particularly bright yellow. The boy's hair couldn't be natural if it was that shade. Then again, Gaara's hair was nearly the color of blood, and there was a girl coming around the corner with pink hair _and_ Temari was going to stop judging people's hair now.

"Konohamaru Corps! Hanabi! What happened?!"

The kids all pointed at Kankuro, who was still weakly giggling and half sprawled across the ground.

Temari resisted the urge to facepalm, knowing that any chance of Suna intimidating local teams had just gone down the drain with Kankuro's pride, and whatever dessert he had been planning on getting that night if she had anything to do about it.

The boy, probably a genin if his age and headband were anything to go by, looked at Kankuro. He looked at the kids. He looked at Temari.

"Suffice to say, my brother is an _idiot."_ Temari growled, iterating the thought that had been going through her head on repeat for the past several minutes.

"…Oh." He nudged Kankuro with his foot. "Is he getting up soon? 'Cause this is kind of creepy. Is this normal?"

"In order: hopefully. I agree. No, and I hope it won't ever be." Temari growled, still staring at her brother. Maybe if she smashed him in the head with her Tessen?

"Do you think he'll shut up if I kick him?" The blond boy asked, head tilted to the side. "Like, in the groin?"

The laughing suddenly stopped, as did all shaking from Kankuro's body on the ground. Frozen in terror.

"…Kankuro, get up." Temari sighed, and then turned to the Konoha denizens. "I'm sorry about him. He just…"

"It's fine." The pink hair girl smiled embarrassedly. "We've got one almost as bad on our team."

The blond nodded self-importantly until he saw that the girl was pointing at him. "Hey!"

"You know," A voice came from on top the wall, and everyone craned their heads back just enough to squint and see who was there, right between them and the sun. Even Kankuro, who had finally gotten up, turned to look. "I thought I'd maybe have to stop a fight, not watch this…farce."

"Sasuke-kun," The pink hair girl sounded nervous now, like… little-girl crush nervous. "Um, could you move? You're right in front of the sun, and it's kind of hurting my eyes."

A scoff, a scuff, and a scrunch as the boy landed on a tree branch when he jumped to the ground. He looked over at Temari and nodded, just acknowledging her presence, before turning to leave in a manner that indicated his expectation that his team follow. Then he paused.

"By the way, Suna girl." He looked back over his shoulder at her, in a way that would have made many a fangirl swoon. Any other time, Temari might have at least looked the boy up and down to give him a chance, but she was suffering from an overdose of idiocy-in-the-vicinity, and really couldn't have cared less at the moment.

"Yeah, Konoha kid?"

"You know the guy up in the tree?" He jerked his chin at to the side, and she turned to see her Jinchuuriki brother standing upside down on one of the tree's branches.

She groaned and dropped her head into one hand. "Great. Just… great."

Silence… Wind whoosh… the sound… of street vendors… a rat screaming in agony as Tora caught it, or maybe that was just a genin…

Temari finally lifted her head to stare at the younger of her two brothers. "Hey, Gaara."

The boy with the gourd only stared at her for a second before turning to the kids and the team on the ground. Oh wait, it was just the genin team; the kids had already scattered. Gaara looked like he was about to say something, but was interrupted before he could speak.

"Is there a problem here?" A new voice cut in. It was fairly deep but also quite feminine, and came from behind the Konoha genin team. Temari looked past them to the end of the street. There was a woman there, tall and thin, with a figure that made Temari jealous before she reminded herself that she still had time to grow. The woman was wearing clothing that didn't look quite like any fashion that Temari had seen before, but were different from the norm in a way she couldn't quite pin down. There wasn't a hitai-ate to be seen on her, but she walked with a grace that belied a fighter, and held enough chakra to signify that she was easily at least at the level of a special Jounin, at least a B-rank. She was smiling at them all, in a way that put Temari on edge, as if the woman was hiding something big.

"No." Gaara finally spoke, looking at the woman for a barely a second before dismissing her as inconsequential. "The issue has been resolved, and we were just leaving."

"Ah. I see. Might I ask you a few questions?" The woman continued to smile, though her eyelids weren't as lazily low as they had been.

Gaara seemed to ponder it for a few seconds, but turned to face the woman. "Make it quick."

Temari knew that voice. The woman had caught Gaara's attention, but if she bored him any time soon, he would not hesitate to kill her and sate Shukaku's screams.

"Of course. First, however, am I correct in assuming that you are Suna genin here for the Chunin Exams?"

The three nodded. Gaara's eye narrowed slightly. "Why do you ask?"

Behind the woman, who had by know walked up to them, the blond boy seemed to be mouthing something to the girl that looked quite clearly like, "What are the Chunin Exams?"

"I simply needed to know what level you were and why you were in the village." The woman waved the question aside. "Actually, are any of you well-versed in your village's history, legends, and folktales? I'm a historian and archeologist by profession, and hearing a story about your village from the mouths of its own citizens as opposed to a book would be quite enjoyable, especially as there are so few books chronicling such things. There is always a story or two left out, I feel."

None of the three from Suna knew quite what to say. The woman's claim of profession was at odds with the power of her chakra and athletic build. Her request was even odder.

"I could show you a nice restaurant to speak in if you'd like." She offered. "I'm not quite sure I could pay for all four meals, or seven if these three insist on coming along, but I'm sure I could find one that suits your tastes.

Then the blond boy popped in around the woman's side, like an instantaneous weed, a dandelion. "I'd do it if I was you. Robin-san can be really scary, and she can tell you really cool stories about her pirate days if you tell her stories about Suna! Plus, Robin really does know a lot of good restaurants."

A pirate? Temari's thoughts were whirling, but she shook her head, clearing it, and refocused on her brother and the somewhat intimidating and near-freakishly tall woman. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a voice whispered that it at least explained why she didn't look the part of a historian.

There were several more seconds of silence as Gaara stared at the woman, and she stared back, with the same subdued and rather disturbing smile she had worn since the beginning. Everyone else stared at the two of them.

"We'll come."

Temari looked at her brother in surprise, but kept her mouth shut as she nodded and followed along. Kankuro, in contrast to his earlier behavior, kept himself calm and mature. The three genin that decided to tag along didn't, but that was beside the point.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: So for everyone that kept asking for Suna… ta-da!**

**In any case, a large thought in my mind when I wrote this was that I wanted to keep the Kankuro scene, because it's practically tradition here on FFnet. However, it's so cliché that I really needed a way to spice things up. So I changed a few things:**

**One, Kankuro is always a child-hating jerk that just kind of picks on little kids for the fun of it, a la canon. I pretty much threw that out the window in his first few lines.**

**Two, it always happens as Naruto and Konohamaru are being chased by Sakura for some reason. Here, Team Seven didn't get here until about ten minutes after it started, and even then it was only because they'd been told that something had happened.**

**Three, the fight always ends with Gaara and Sasuke, unless the writer is a basher in which case Naruto ends it, maybe by pulling the 'Hokage's Grandson' card to get Kankuro to drop Konohamaru. Here… there was never a fight in the first place, and Gaara almost didn't show up, while Sasuke's appearance was a Big Ham moment and sufficiently underwhelming at the same time.**

**Four, Temari is either a [Bleep] or shows hints of a crush on Sasuke which somehow disappears by the time of the Exams. Here, she's just an exhausted older sister that's a little too tired of cleaning up her brothers' messes.**

**Review if you think I fulfilled my aim of making an original version of the Suna/Seven meeting. Review if you don't, especially, because then I'll know that I messed up and won't disappoint you again.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	20. Steal the Burn

**A/N – About the first paragraph in the third scene… my only excuse is that I found it hilarious. I find it especially hilarious to tease the KakaRobin shippers that have popped up around this fic. I'm not exactly sure how I got shippers, but you guys are out there for some reason. If anyone wants to draw some fanart for KakaRobin shiptease (with optional naïve, confused Ino and Sakura spying on them)… Well, show me a link, because I really want to see it.**

o.o.o.o.o

Baki sat in a tree, staring down at the restaurant.

He wasn't quite sure what was going on.

To be fair, no one else was either, barring Robin and Gaara.

Who were talking.

And there was no blood.

What.

His shoulder twitched slightly as he felt someone land on the branch next to him.

"Identification." The voice was flat and mechanical, hidden by either genjutsu or some electronic device like the ones that Yuki no Kuni was producing all the time. That meant ANBU.

He turned, facing the shinobi. Long purple hair peeked out from behind the mask, and the figure was slight, but undeniably feminine. A kunoichi, then.

He did as requested, pulling out his passport and associated paperwork for the exams. The ANBU took the pages, flipping through them quickly. "Your identification clears out. Now, would you like to explain why you're in a tree and seem to be spying on someone?"

Baki bit back the urge to curse a little. Well, in this case the truth, or at least a variant of it, was probably the best idea. "My team is currently in there with three Konoha genin and an unknown variant with Tokubetsu Jounin-level reserves. The youngest member of my team is slightly mentally unstable, so I decided to keep an eye on the situation from outside without interfering."

There, that would… that would probably do it. All he'd really let out in terms of information was that he could sense chakra levels—which most shinobi could, so it wasn't important—and that Gaara was… unstable. That was information that would probably come to light sometime during the exams anyway. The Kazekage may have thought that Gaara would be able to get through the whole thing without proving that he _still_ had problems, which were probably only getting worse, but Baki knew better. The Kazekage wasn't the one that saw Gaara day after day, family or not. And quite frankly, Baki was rather convinced that by this point the relationship was closer to 'not'.

"Understandable. Try to go about it without using any shinobi skills, however. It wouldn't do to have the civilians panic."

Baki nodded and dropped to the ground as the ANBU jumped away, likely going back to whichever patrol she had been running before she saw him.

Baki turned back to the restaurant, and saw that one of the Konoha genin seemed to be trying to pick a fight. With his teammate. In front of half a dozen bowls of ramen.

Of all the people for Gaara to meet and, from the looks of it, possibly even half-way befriend, why did it have to be the ones that were even stranger than he was?

o.o.o.o.o

Temari didn't feel like admitting it, but she was a little terrified. This was so _awkward_, the whole situation. Kankuro was stiff beside her, and Gaara was in the middle of slowly, monotonously, almost boringly telling the story that made up Suna's mythology of Shukaku.

The woman, who, they learned, went by the name of Nico Robin, listened carefully, elbows resting on the table as her fingertips pressed lightly against one another. Occasionally, her eyes closed for several seconds, ending with a nod before her eyes opened again.

Temari felt she had good reason to be terrified. She was only a few feet from her less-than-stable little brother, and the woman across form her was either severely delusional, very good at lying, or genuinely powerful. From the way those three Konoha genin were nodding along, they actually believed her, which made _them_ either extremely gullible or surprisingly well-informed and used to the woman's power.

She was going to bet on the stories about the zombie island being true for now. Better to err on the side of caution, right?

…Oh, kami. What if one of those horo-things got to Gaara?!

She would have to ensure that that never happened. Never, ever, _ever_ happened.

Or hope that the whole thing was just a story on Robin's part. The woman was too unreadable, and rather creepy besides.

The genin, on the other hand… well, they were kind of pathetic. The only one with any control over their emotions seemed to be the one with the black hair, though there were occasionally flashes of something on the face of the girl, barely there, that indicated that perhaps she was deeper than she let on. The blond, though… he let off all the signs of being an unrepentant, naïve, ignorant _moron_. Then there was the ramen…

She tuned back into the conversation after noticing Baki in a tree outside, and blanched. What—what were they—how was there _anyone_ that could—she felt like she was going to be sick.

"…Well, I suppose that's plausible, but I prefer to kill people quickly. Snapping their spine or neck is so much quicker and easier than a quicksand trap. Possibly less satisfying to some people, but I'm not really interested in causing people pain or killing them for the sake of it, and there are really only a very small number of people that I hold enough of a grudge against to actively want to kill them."

Temari closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Okay, so someone was actually discussing killing methods with her brother. So long as Gaara himself didn't try to kill anyone in the vicinity, they would be alright.

"What did you just call me?!"

Her head whipped to the side, noticing that the blond genin was currently trying to strangle his possibly-depressed teammate, and rather ineffectively at that. It may have been that he wasn't trying, and may have been that he was just that bad at it, but…

"Naruto-kun, please stop that. You're shaking the table." Robin's voice was soft, and she wore that strange half-smile that Temari already found disturbing; despite that, there was absolutely nothing about her that made her seem frightening at the moment.

Yet the genin quickly all sat down and kept their hands to themselves. Temari blinked. None of them seemed the kind to respond well to authority, or at least neither of the boys, so why had this happened? Then again, looking back, the brunette member of the team was just sitting there from the beginning, and had been trying to ignore everyone else at the table (which begged the question of why he was there in the first place), so all he'd really done was continue what he had been doing. The girl seemed to be a little goody-two-shoes anyway, so the only real surprise was the blond. _That_, in particular, seemed to be explained by the look of near hero-worship on his face as he looked at the woman.

Gaara blinked slowly at the disturbance, and then turned back to Robin, face blank.

Robin was humming, and her smile seemed almost… condescending, to Temari. She looked as though she _knew_… though what it was that she knew was a matter of mystery. Temari tentatively smiled back, taking a leap of faith to… well, she was mostly just taking a reckless shot in the dark to see what would happen.

"Oh, Temari-san. Do you know any interesting stories from Suna?" Robin certainly noticed the smile, and was quick to take Temari up on her 'offer.'

"Ano…" Temari gulped. She scrambled to remember one, because right now she was pretty sure that Gaara would be rather irritated if she didn't. And if Gaara was irritated, he was more likely to kill people. "Well, there's a mystery surrounding the Sandaime Kazekage…"

And so the afternoon wore on.

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi stared at Robin. Her face was sweaty, and her clothes clung to her like a second skin. Her eyes were closed in exertion, and her lips were parted. Her chest occasionally heaved as she took an exceptionally large breath, but never made a noise. Her hair clung to her face, but made her no less beautiful.

He sighed, bored. She'd barely moved from her seat for the past ten minutes. He had no idea what she was doing in her world, and nothing she did could give him any kind of hint as to what she was doing.

A bulge of hands came up from the ground, wrapped around something slightly larger than a breadbox—he really had to stop playing that little machine of Asuma's; Twenty Questions was far too addicting—and dispersed, leaving behind a box. Robin got up from her spot and quickly walked over to the box, while Kakashi raised an eyebrow. This had been the first time she had tried transporting something that large. Though, the lock was problematic… and it seemed to be repelling her?

"Robin-san? Is something wrong?" He came closer, and found her staring at the lock on the box, almost worried. It was not an expression he had seen her wear often.

"Kakashi-san…" She struggled with the words for a moment. "Do you know anyone that could break or cut through diamond?"

"Maa… Asuma might be able to, if he uses wind on his trench knives. Why?"

She pointed to the lock. "It's made of kairoseki… sea-stone. It's as hard as diamond, or at least close to it. I don't know where the key was, but the important thing was the box."

"What's inside it?" Kakashi looked down at it in interest. The box was shaped like a miniature treasure chest and made of steel, which was probably easier to cut through. "Could we just cut the box?"

"I would prefer to not risk damaging the contents, if the information I overheard was correct." Robin replied. She looked down at the box again, and nodded to herself. "We should take it to the Hokage. He would be able to decide on where it would be most secure."

Kakashi shrugged. "Alright. Do you want me to take a detour and get Asuma on the way?"

Robin thought for a moment. "Yes… alright."

Kakashi nodded and leapt up into the trees to get to the training ground that he knew was used by Team Ten.

o.o.o.o.o

"There's a _what_ inside this box?" Sarutobi Hiruzen was a hard man to amaze. Unfortunately, Robin seemed to do it with surprising regularity. Due to her circumstances, it wasn't all that surprising that she _could_… just extremely irritating.

"An Akuma no Mi." Robin smiled at him, and the Hokage realized just how overjoyed she was to have gotten ahold of it.

"And you expect me to do what?"

"Place it somewhere safe. In the forbidden scroll, perhaps. Or a vault of some sort. I have to check inside to be sure, but I'm almost positive that there is one inside, and almost as sure about which fruit it is."

"And?" He asked warily.

"The Mera Mera no Mi." _The Flame-Flame Fruit_. It gave the user complete and natural control over fire, and even the ability to turn into it, like a Hozuki turned to water. Robin had mentioned it before, as an example, but he had been under the impression that it was still in use.

"I thought you said that it was still being used…" Sarutobi muttered, turning the box over in his hands. A small thump came from it as whatever was inside rolled about.

"It was. By Portgas D. Ace."

And that explained it. It explained why she was so glad to get it in her possession. It explained why it sounded familiar. And it explained why she wanted it hidden away.

Away from the paws of the marines and the claws of shinobi.

"I'll figure something out. Perhaps we could put it into the Torture and Investigation base…" His musing was interrupted by a knock on the door.

He hadn't yet granted permission to whoever was on the other side to enter when the door opened, and Kakashi and Asuma strolled in.

"Yo."

"Hello, Hokage-sama, Robin-san." Asuma kept up a professional veneer around his father. "Kakashi said you needed me for something?"

Robin smiled at him. "I was told that you can enhance your blades with Fuuton chakra to make them sharper. Would you be able to cut through this lock?" She gestured at the box.

Asuma blinked and shrugged, turning to look at it. "I can give it a shot."

The process was long and painstaking, and Robin occasionally took a step further away and brushed off kairoseki dust, but eventually the lock was sliced through.

Asuma took a step back and brushed the back of one hand against his forehead. "Wow. What was that stuff? I've never had that much trouble cutting through something."

Robin smiled, though there was a grim tint to it. "Kairoseki is purported to be as hard as diamond, though malleable under certain conditions. The stone's more important ability is that it emits the aura of the sea… That attribute is likely near useless here, but it is an extraordinarily powerful and useful ability back home. It has saved many a life, and slain many another."

"Huh." Asuma stared down at the lock that sat innocently on the table, one hand in his pocket, fiddling with a pack of cigarettes. "So… are you going to keep it?"

"I? Oh, no, I'm afraid that's impossible." Robin assured him. "I can't touch it, you see."

Asuma didn't really see, but he nodded along anyway. "Right, so… what's in the box, then?"

Robin smiled, and walked over. "Hopefully…"

"The fruit of the Devil."

Thunder crashed, and lightning lit up the sky.

Kakashi looked out the window. "Huh. Sounds like it's going to rain."

Robin frowned. "I can't quite remember if I closed my windows before leaving my apartment."

Kakashi shrugged, and bit a thumb. Three seconds and one subdued bark of 'Kuchiyose no Jutsu' later, there was a pug named Pakkun in the middle of the Hokage's office. Thirty seconds later, it was gone, relaying a message to Naruto to check Robin's windows, and close them just in case.

"So…" Asuma coughed. "A demonic fruit?"

"Of a sort." Robin smiled at him, though a shadow hid her eyes.

Kakashi made a small noise. "Robin, you're being creepy again."

"Oh, I know."

"Banter aside, I'm going to just open the box." Hiruzen deadpanned, one hand on the lid of the box. Met with no protest, he pulled up the surprisingly heavy lid and looked inside.

"Is that a swirly blue Deglet Noor?" Asuma blinked at the box.

"A what?" Kakashi stared at him oddly, but it was Robin that answered.

"It's a kind of date palm."

The Sandaime and Kakashi just stared at them. "I… Asuma, how do you know that?"

Asuma scratched at his beard when he heard Kakashi's question. "You remember that mission I took when we were sixteen? Two months infiltrating some Yakuza place?"

"Yes."

"The Yakuza head _really_ likes his fruit. So I kind of have lots and lots of different kinds of fruit lists in my head now. I even know how to differentiate between a dozen different kinds of apple."

Kakashi accepted the answer for what it was, and didn't bother delving deeper. "Alright. I've already accepted the fact that Robin knows everything that falls under the banner of 'trivia,' so I won't even bother asking. What I do want to know about is the book that's under the… Deglet Noor."

"You're pronouncing it wrong."

"Asuma, I _don't care_."

Robin chuckled, but otherwise ignored the bantering and reached in to slide out the book from beneath the cursed fruit. She flipped through it, and her eyes slowly widened, as did her grin. "Oh my. It seems I was even luckier than I expected."

"What is it, Nico-san?" Hiruzen puffed on his pipe, and Robin looked up at him in a decidedly disturbing manner.

"It's a list of known Devil Fruits."

o.o.o.o.o

Asuma rubbed his head, trying to chase away his migraine. Sure, last night had been _interesting_, but learning about a whole different world was _not_ the kind of thing that was conducive to a good mental state. Especially not with Kakashi's weird comments that actively tried to kill his brain.

Of course, there was also Robin's _reasoning_ to consider, which seemed to hinge on the fact that the universe just enjoyed a good laugh. If people had a secret, and were in the middle of information-sensitive areas and occupations, the secret would invariably spread. So, in order to counter that inevitable spread, she would actively let people in on the secret, one by one, to prevent leaks that she didn't want.

She somehow expected that to work.

Asuma just stopped caring.

o.o.o.o.o

In a drawer beneath the Hokage's desk, locked with a blood-activated seal that would only open to either extreme force or direct blood relatives of the Hokage, there lay a small steel chest with a shriveled fruit.

On a bookshelf next to a secondhand piano in a pirate's apartment, there rested a thin book of fruit, surprisingly silly and altogether innocuous.

o.o.o.o.o

Hanabi kept her face blank and her body language blanker as she walked into a spare, in-village training ground with no one in it. She activated her Byakugan and, after checking that there was no one nearby, smashed an open-handed strike through a wooden training pole, chakra poised just so to prevent splinters from exploding into her palm.

She'd just seen one of her Main House cousins taunting one of her Branch House cousins about the seal. Years of looking up to her sister, so kind and understanding, had taught her to try to foster that same feeling in herself and others. Years of looking up to her father, so commanding and austere, had taught her to hide her negative feelings whenever in the company of those she knew to placate. Years of looking up to her cousin, a prodigy and a genius, had taught her to never underestimate anyone, no matter which biases had been fostered in her from birth.

She tried to interfere. Unfortunately, the Main House cousin was a kunoichi named Haruhi, a seventeen-year-old chunin that could lay Hanabi flat on her back in seconds, and prone to making snide remarks at anyone and everyone due to her unearned feelings of superiority. The branch house member was a five-year-old boy named Jun that had yet to start the academy. She didn't have a chance at it.

It made her sick.

She continued to pummel the posts in frustration, one after another, though none of them were destroyed quite as completely as the first.

"You know, you'll hurt yourself if you keep doing that." The voice that interrupted her training was mild, and even sounded a little amused. She turned to stare at the man, who had silver hair and glasses, and a sweet smile that promised that kindness and condescension would both be bundled up into the same breath.

"Who are you?" She demanded.

He shifted his glasses.

"My name is Yakushi Kabuto."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N – How many of you were expecting the second half of the chapter? Eh? Anyone?**

**Two things regarding this chapter specifically:**

**I wanted to make fun of dramatic thunder. That was the reason for talking about rain. I found it funny.**

**The Deglet Noor… I wanted to choose as random a fruit as I could, so I blindly chose a random letter from the keyboard, looked up the fruit list on Wikipedia, and used whatever weird thing I could find under that letter, which was, in this case, 'D'. Fitting, since this is a One Piece crossover, no?**

**Also, not to name names, but… if you're leaving a review that's only four words long, or even under a dozen or so… just stop. Telling me to update soon is ineffective (I have a schedule. What's the point?), and just blandly telling me that it was a good chapter is annoying. Those reviews make me depressed and make it harder to write. No reviews are fine. Long reviews are great. Short reviews just irritate me. A lot. I'd prefer you stop reviewing to leaving short reviews. You know who you are, all of you, so please.**

**Just stop.**

**STOP.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	21. The Entry Test

**A/N: I'm introducing a team of OCs this chapter. A word to the wise: I **_**want**_** you all to hate these guys. If you review and tell me that you want to see them all suffer horrible deaths, then that will make me **_**happy**_**. Hate them. **_**Hate theeeeeeeeeeeeeeem.**_

**Okay, so it's not that intense. But I really don't want to see people thinking that I went wrong in their design by accident. I didn't want them to be particularly likeable. If you **_**do**_ **like them, well, great. But if you don't, I won't care. I tried to give all of them a small number of traits that I've seen and hated in other OCs (sometimes because the OCs were meant to be villains, sometimes just because the author was bad), so that it's impossible to like them too much. Maybe a "Love to hate, hate to love" kind of thing.**

**This chapter was betaed by ****LoveDragonsForever****.**

o.o.o.o.o

Hanabi eyed the green glow of the supposed Genin's hands, and slowly held out an arm so that Kabuto could heal the bloody spot left behind by a particularly large splinter. She watched in mild interest as the wound closed up, and held her hand up afterwards, searching for any hints of the where the small area of jagged flesh and ragged skin had been.

"That was… impressive." Hanabi said slowly.

Kabuto smiled, shifting his glasses so that his eyes were hidden by the glare for a short second. "Thank you. My mother taught me the basics, and I learned the rest at the hospital."

Hanabi frowned slightly, and then, in a stiff voice unsuited to a child, said, "That must be very nice for you."

Kabuto stared at her, and smiled sadly as he apparently realized the problem. "Not anymore. My mother died several years ago."

There was silence as Hanabi digested the information, and then attempted to change the topic. "How… how difficult is it to learn to heal bruises and small surfaces level injuries?"

Kabuto blinked and turned his head slightly to the side. "Well, I suppose it depends on how good your chakra control is."

Hanabi nodded, and then looked him straight in the eye. "Teach me."

o.o.o.o.o

_Three days later:_

Naruto fidgeted a little as he waited inside the room that held all the other Chunin hopefuls. The genjutsu on the door had been a bit of a problem, but Sasuke and Sakura-chan had been able to see it a lot more easily than Naruto himself had. There was one team that had apparently seen the genjutsu even more easily, but then he heard them muttering to another team that had asked that it was a result of having two frequent genjutsu users on the team that may eventually choose to specialize in the field. The team in question had been weird, since their headbands had a sign he didn't recognize (and Sakura-chan didn't either), but Naruto ignored them so that he could talk to the other rookies.

"Ino-buta! Get away from Sasuke-kun!"

Maybe he should have kept focusing on the weird team after all.

…Aaaaaand Sasuke just replaced himself with Naruto.

Great.

Naruto slipped away from Ino before she could try to beat him up, though he couldn't even imagine for _what_, and walked over to where he saw Team Eight. "Kiba! Shino! Hinata!"

Of course, Kiba was the same as always (rowdy); Shino didn't do anything (stoic); Hinata just blushed and stammered (was she nervous about the exams? Sick?), and Akamaru just sat on Kiba's head.

"Oi, oi, oi." A voice came in over the din after several minutes of ever-escalating arguments in the small circle. Naruto turned around to see an older boy with white hair and round glasses walking over to them. "You may want to quiet down a little. A lot of the people here have been taking these exams for years, and some of them have pretty big tempers. If you get them angry, well…"

"And just who are you?!" Naruto demanded.

The boy seemed unperturbed. "Yakushi Kabuto. I—"

He was cut off by a small, "Oh!" From Hinata. He turned to her, an innocently puzzled look on his face.

"What?"

Hinata shook her head, a little embarrassed that she had gotten their attention. "Oh, I just… Hanabi mentioned you yesterday."

Understanding dawned on the young man's face, and he laughed softly, lightheartedly. "Ah, Hanabi-chan! Yes, she took me by some surprise when she asked me to teach her medical jutsu, but she's got very good chakra control and is very determined. Would you be her sister?"

Hinata nodded, and her face was freer than only seconds earlier.

"Hinata, then! I'm glad to meet you. Hanabi has spoken quite highly of you."

Naruto lost interest as the two continued to talk, and noticed the Suna team from earlier. He waved an arm and shouted. "OI, GAARA!"

He couldn't really remember the names of the other two, but Gaara just stared weird at everyone and was creepy so Naruto made sure to remember his name. He looked like he needed a hug. Or therapy.

The closest thing Konoha had to therapy (at least, for shinobi) was a few old Yamanaka that couldn't go out on missions anymore. And Robin, probably, when it came to the kids. Naruto was pretty sure that Suna probably had even fewer options.

The redhead in question turned around and stared. He continued to stare for almost a full minute, and then slowly made his way over, with his teammates trailing behind him. They looked to be somewhere halfway between irritated, relieved, confused, and scared.

Only seconds before they got there, Kabuto was attacked by a shinobi that Naruto didn't recognize. There was an eighth note on his forehead protector, but Naruto didn't know what village that was analogous to.

The scene unfolded, and Naruto at one point almost found the stress causing him to shout that he'd beat them all, but a hand on his arm stopped him, and he glanced back to see Sakura shaking her head silently. He sagged, and at that point the doors slammed open.

"Settle down, maggots!" A scarred man at the door shouted. He was tall and terrifying, and Naruto immediately compared him to Robin for those two criteria. "Oto, settle down before I kick you out of the exams!"

"Aw, no physical punishment?" Naruto couldn't see who had said the line, but the childish, feminine voice carried. "I wanted to see some blood…"

"If you want to see some blood, wait 'til the next part of the exams, pipsqueak." The scarred man growled, presumably in the direction of whoever had spoken.

"Okay!" It was followed by a giggle, and Naruto felt his heart drop to his stomach. Whoever it was sounded no older than five, or just… he shook his head. There were a lot of people here. He probably wouldn't run into whoever it was. The idea of fighting someone that young, and of someone that young sounding so _happy_ with the thought of blood, it was just… just _disturbing_. It was _creepy_.

He filed into the examination room with everyone else, and quickly took his seat. He was sitting next to Hinata, and a little ways away, he saw Gaara sitting down next to one of the two girls, the blonde, on the weird team (he didn't know what else to call them).

And then he realized that this would be a written test.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin sat next to Kakashi in the video room allocated to the proctors and the Jounin sensei. They were both watching the videos in question, not even commenting as Naruto silently panicked on screen.

The videos transmitted sound, and though it was mostly quiet, the occasional noise of the landing kunai and enraged genin broke through. About halfway through, one of the foreign genin began to giggle quietly, and faded in and out. A foreign Jounin standing several paces away, presumably the genin's sensei, muttered something under her breath as she rubbed at her temples.

Robin looked at her in askance. "Is there a problem?"

The brunette woman looked over at Robin, face rather sour, but also apologetic. "No, sorry." There was a slight lilting accent to her voice, subtle, but it was there. "My genin is simply…"

"A bit crazy?" Kakashi offered. "Most shinobi are."

The woman snorted, rolling extremely dark eyes, probably brown, but hard to distinguish in the low light. "That's one way to put it. That child could drive a Kage insane if she were to actually put some effort into such a goal."

"Her name?" Robin asked, and then gestured vaguely at the many screens. "And maybe a little information on who she is?"

The woman shrugged, not seeing anything the matter with such a request. She pointed to a small redheaded girl on one of the screens. "That one. Ketsueki Daiya."

Kakashi stored the name away in his mind. "Your other students?"

The woman glanced over the screens, and pointed to two more, a pale blonde girl sitting next to Gaara, and a purple-haired boy marooned among unknowns. "The girl is Ookami Sakkaku, and the boy is Yagira Torame. What about you two?"

Kakashi pointed out his own students, noting that Naruto still seemed to be in a bit of a panic. "And I'm Hatake Kakashi."

Robin introduced herself as well, ending with, "But I don't have any students. I simply aid Kakashi-san and several other sensei on occasion, and am currently here to prepare as a proctor for the next part of the exams."

The woman nodded. "Daiten Kinishi."

Kakashi decided to ask a question that had been bothering him for a while. "Your headband is rather… odd. Why don't I recognize it?"

The woman, now named as Kinishi, shrugged. "We're not technically a village, just a travelling mercenary group. Getting credentials through official means like the Chunin Exams makes it easier to convince people that we're as experienced as we claim. The hitai-ate are to prove that we have shinobi training, and aren't samurai or regular mercenaries."

Kakashi nodded. There was sense in the explanation, though it was sufficiently vague that he still didn't know the name of the group or where exactly they picked up most of their business. Mercenary groups weren't even particularly illegal, so there really wasn't much of a problem with her presence there.

Kinishi frowned at the screen, and Kakashi noticed that Ibiki was lecturing the kids again. Robin leaned forward, resting her chin on her laced hands. Kakashi chuckled at Naruto's outburst, but his lone eye widened when the foreign girl, the one that had been named off as Ketsueki Daiya, threw her head back and let loose a shriek of laughter. One glance at Kinishi showed just how little she approved of the action, and her sneer and smirk at Ibiki's explanation after a few more people left (their resolve built up by Naruto, shattered by Daiya, and gone out the window), proved her support of the examiner's plan.

Kakashi knew that judging a shinobi by their first impression was not a good idea, but this Daiya girl seemed to have a few screws loose. She also seemed to have a very high opinion of herself, something that could be very dangerous in the world of shinobi.

"Shall we?" Kinishi muttered, gesturing to the door as Anko yelled at the kids on-screen. "We can continue our discussions on our way to speak with the children."

Her voice dripped with sarcasm and detestation on the last word. She either hated children, or was convinced that the genin should not be considered such. There were numerous other possibilities, but Kakashi thought those two were the most likely.

Robin answered for both of them. "We would be happy to."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: If you can figure the OCs out, put it in a PM. I'll give an omake to whoever guesses correctly first. Once someone guesses, I'll actually explain in the chapter afterwards. Their names are a very clear hint as to who they could be/are/are analogous to (and no, they aren't canon characters). So, just as a reminder:**

**Sensei: Daiten Kinishi (brunette, female)  
>Students: Ketsueki Daiya (redheaded, female), Ookami Sakkaku (blonde, female), Yagira Torame (purple-haired, male)<strong>

**In other news… HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! ****Fly Free**** has officially been running for a year now, and I'm surprised I've made it this far. Thank you to everyone who reviews, and for every follow and favorite as well. In celebration, I'll be writing up two chapters this week.**

**Also, I finally got recced on TvTropes! So I made a page, as it wouldn't do for my only major story with a rec to be the only one without a page. It's woefully inadequate, though, and needs some more tropes. So go! Go, and add tropes! Go and add your name on the One Piece and Naruto Crossover recs pages as liking the story! Go and add a series-wide review for the story to convince people to come!**

**Go! Go to the tropes page!**

…**I like troping, okay?**

**Review number 200 was caught by ****dragon shinobi**** (coincidentally, also the person who recced me), who requested a reprisal of the Kakashi mask episode, but with all the members of the Konoha 12, and possibly the Suna team as well, ending with Robin being the only one to catch a glimpse, with her reaction and the genin's left up to me.**

**Well.**

_**Awesome**_**.**

**(Keep in mind, I don't watch the anime, I just read the manga. Ergo, I don't know most of what happened in the original episode. I still love the prompt, though.)**

**Enjoy!**

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto popped up out of the bushes, a pair of binoculars held up to his eyes. Several meters away on each side, Sakura and Sasuke did the same.

Several minutes passed in silence.

"Naruto, this is stupid."

"Hn."

Naruto moved the binoculars away from his face to pout at his teammates. "Well, what do _you_ suggest we do? I thought spying on him before he gets ready was a great time to figure it out."

Sakura bit her lip. "Remember when we got into that huge prank war? Remember Neji and Hinata?"

Sasuke nodded, a smirk, possibly even a grin, making its way across his face. "And Lee was pretty fast… fast enough to steal clothes. And masks are…"

Naruto nodded, getting more into the idea. "And if Shikamaru caught him in his snare thing, or… Hey, Shino can control most bugs, right? Don't moths eat cloth?"

"I think it's synthetic, though, and they don't eat _that_ fast…"

"Ninja bugs, Sakura-chan. Ninja bugs."

…

"I hate it when you're right."

"Let's go get the other teams." Naruto affirmed.

The other two nodded.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin was drinking coffee and eating a slice of carrot cake (not too sweet) when she suddenly heard a small whoosh of air. She looked up to see Kakashi standing in the middle of the room, the smoke from a shunshin dissipating from around him.

"Kakashi-san." She smiled at him. "What are you doing here?"

He brushed some nonexistent dust off of one arm. "Apparently, every genin I've had the pleasure, or displeasure, of meeting is suddenly obsessed with seeing what's under my mask."

"Oh my. Should I assume that you have no intention to allow them to succeed."

Kakashi's eyes curved, amused. "You know me well."

"It is not as though it is a particularly well-kept secret, Kakashi-san. Would you like some cake?"

"Is that permission to stay here for a while?"

Robin just smiled at him.

o.o.o.o.o

"This is Delta Squadron Four."

Neji felt the urge to slam his head against something. TenTen and Lee had dragged him into this pretty much against his will, and now he had to put up with the little Yamanaka girl next to him using the _ridiculous_ codenames that the Uzumaki boy, the one that Hinata-sama was enamored with, came up with on the fly.

Because he could.

And they apparently sounded "cool."

Neji didn't agree.

Neji knew cool. Neji _was_ cool. Neji was _coolness incarnate_. He had the skill, the looks, the taste, the attitude (cold and aloof, and what was cool if not a lesser synonym of cold?).

"Delta Squadron Four" was _not_ cool.

"This is Alpha Squadron Three, reporting with the power of Youth!"

Oh, come on!

o.o.o.o.o

Robin glanced out the window, noticing small splotches of color in the trees from insufficiently hidden genin. There was also one rather blatant spot of white, or possibly just very pale beige, sitting stubbornly on a tree branch, making absolutely no attempt whatsoever to hide.

"That's Neji, right? Gai's student?" Kakashi indicated the unhidden genin.

Robin nodded. "I believe so."

"They are going to fail so hard at this."

"I would not be surprised."

o.o.o.o.o

Lee crouched on Kakashi's roof, tensed, and—!

ZOOM!

Ten, twenty, thirty seconds passed, and then Lee was back on the roof, holding an armful of masks. "Nara-san! I have accomplished the objective!"

Shikamaru yawned, not even looking at him. "That's great Lee. Hey, do you think that cloud looks kind of like an octopus?"

o.o.o.o.o

"Huh." Kakashi cocked his head, staring out the window. "Someone just triggered one of my traps."

"Which one?"

"Actually, they were almost fast enough to escape the effects, so it may have been a bit delayed or watered-down. It was a seal-based one, though."

"Oh? What does it do?"

"Orange."

o.o.o.o.o

Sasuke ignored the blubbering from Lee concerning his sudden loss of green, and looked to Shino, the person he had been randomly assigned to work with for the course of the assignment. Well… it wasn't like either of them had too much trouble working with the other.

It was refreshingly quiet.

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi chuckled as distant screams of youthful anguish reached his ears.

o.o.o.o.o

TenTen hung from Kakashi's window, putting a snail just inside the ledge, knowing that the traps in the apartment weren't concentrated at this particular area.

Bugging Robin for these, for several weeks on end, had been _so_ worth it.

Sakura, in a little room God-knows-where, continued to monitor the large network of snails that TenTen had so far set up.

o.o.o.o.o

"So, I just have to put a cloth on them or something?"

"Yes, but you do have to admit that it would work on anyone that wasn't aware of their properties as well."

"True."

o.o.o.o.o

Hinata simply sat on the roof, Byakugan activated, as Chouji stood guard over her.

Should she be worried that she couldn't see through the masks?

o.o.o.o.o

"I love seals."

"They are rather amusing animals."

"Oh yeah, those too."

o.o.o.o.o

Kiba and Naruto argued too much to get anything done.

o.o.o.o.o

Later that day, far into the night, the genin had almost all given up and gone home in defeat. Robin and Kakashi stayed in the woman's apartment, sipping coffee and tea at first, and sake later on. The sake was mild, however, with a very low alcohol content, and neither had very much. Kakashi's back was to the window, while Robin's face was in clear view.

Naruto, having the good luck to live right next door, was still outside in a tree with binoculars. He cursed his luck.

o.o.o.o.o

"Kakashi-san, I do have to express some interest in your face, after the antics of today."

"Hm?" Kakashi looked over at her. "Really?"

"I am a curious individual."

Kakashi chuckled. "I hope you don't mind if I don't agree to show you."

"Not at all."

Kakashi blinked in surprised as an arm sprouted from his chest and easily pulled down his mask.

He pouted childishly. "Hey, no fair."

Robin stared at him, head tilted. "You're quite handsome, you know. Why do you hide?"

"…habit?"

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto gnashed his teeth to keep from yelling about how he couldn't read lips.

Then he lost control of his chakra and fell out of the tree.

o.o.o.o.o

"Can I put my mask back on now?"

"Of course."

"Good. Tell no one."


	22. Say Hello to the Forest, Children!

**A/N: I seem to have gotten most of the reaction I was hoping for and expecting with the last chapter. Most of you sincerely **_**do**_** seem to hate the OCs, at least a little, from what I've seen in reply so far.**

**And, as always, remember: this story is **_**not**_** an action adventure. This story's main focus is character interaction and development. I'll probably write out the prelims, but I don't really write action scenes very well, so don't expect me to write them.**

o.o.o.o.o

She was creepy.

Naruto thought that was the best word to describe the girl. She wasn't scary, really, since she was so young and _small_, or intimidating, or disturbing (yet), but she was creepy.

He was jumping through the trees now, and he could see her ahead of him, occasionally blocking his view from seeing the new proctor.

He hadn't heard her name yet. She was young, maybe nine years old, with bright red hair and pale skin, with laughing brown eyes and glinting white teeth in a wide smile, with an open-hearted laugh and a voice like a five-year-old.

And she was, above all else, _creepy_.

Naruto had flinched when a scream had cut the air after his speech in the room, and had choked on his own spit when the scream dropped into laughter, the laughter of a madwoman.

"_Right!_" She'd laughed. _"Hokage? You're a child! You're a genin! You'll probably die before the year is out, maybe even during these very exams!_" She laughed again, though it was more like a bark of laughter, cynical and mocking.

"_Silly little genin, from all over the world. You go ahead! You __**take**__that question. You pat yourself on the back and die like the swine you are! Think about it! Isn't there a single team here with a sensor? You can feel it! You can __**feel**__ the demons in the room; you can feel the one outside! __**You**__ can go ahead, avoid them if you have to, because you'll know who they are, where they are! The rest of you __**can't**__! You can't go on and fight, because you are __**weak**__ and you are __**ignorant**__!_"

More laughter, quieter, a giggle from the girl, she laughed, she laughed. "_Even I know when I have to cut my losses, and I've been told I'm mad as a hatter. We are shinobi. We have no future bar the one chosen for us. You're being given a choice now, one that you won't be offered when given a mission. No, you don't know what it's going to be. Better cautious than dead, you know._" She'd smiled with that, put her chin on one hand, and begun to hum, eyes closed.

"_You can try all you want. No shinobi survives intact."_ Her eyes had popped open, her smile turning into a mad grin. "_Maybe you'll be broken when my hand rips through your chest and tears out your heart. Maybe you'll be broken watching me do just that to your teammate. Maybe you'll be broken when you hear the far-off screams of all the people I kill. There are nightmares here in these exams, and only some of them are human. But hey!_"

Her tone had turned light, conversational, and her smile had grown sickly sweet, too fake. "_Take the question. After all, nothing __**too**__ bad can happen, right?_"

Another giggle, a sharkish grin. "_**Right?**_"

There had been a dam put up when Naruto had given his speech. People had made up their minds to stay. And then this one little girl had ripped the rug out from underneath them and thrown it into a blender on puree.

Naruto kept an eye on her after that. She seemed confident that she could make her way through the exams, particularly after her comments about sensing. Could she feel the Kyuubi? No, that was insane… right?

He blinked as he noticed the girl's teammates catch up to her and start whispering with her. Occasionally, a word or two drifted back in a language that Naruto didn't know, and the girl would glare, would _hiss_ back. At one point, the blonde even lashed out a hand and slapped the back of the girl's head.

He shook his head. The girl wasn't worth dwelling on.

She. Wasn't. Worth. It.

o.o.o.o.o

Several hours later, the teams were entrenched in the forest, wandering and trying to find their way to the tower at the center.

Well, most teams were.

Gaara looked dispassionately down at the two teams he had just killed. He'd taken the normal route with most of them, but he had remembered a conversation from earlier and tried to induce suffocation by stuffing sand down one of their throats. However, that had taken too long and there wasn't enough blood, so he called the sand back and let it rip through the throat, spraying the area in blood as he did so.

"Find the scrolls." He ordered monotonously. Temari, a look of obvious disgust on her features, crept down behind Kankuro to try and find the scrolls. The scrolls were found quickly, but then the distraction came.

"Did you do this?"

Gaara looked up to see a small girl on a tree branch, the same one that had given the demoralizing speech during the first exam.

His eyes narrowed. If she didn't do anything interesting soon, he would kill her, just like all the others. "Yes."

Her eyes widened and she hopped down to the grown, a wild smile gracing her face. She breathed. "It's beautiful…"

Gaara blinked. She now had his interest.

"What?" The question came from Temari.

"So much blood, and it's _everywhere_…" She giggled, crouching down beside one of the corpses. Her smiled widened as she dipped a finger in a pool of blood and traced swirling patterns on the dead boy's cheek. "It's like an art unto itself…"

She lifted the hand to her face, as if to lick off the blood, to suckle the life-giving red fluid like it was just cotton candy that had stuck to her while she was eating. Such a young girl, and…

She was thrown to the side as one of her teammates slammed into her, a tiny hiss of electricity as the blonde girl followed some pre-ordained procedure to keep the smaller girl under control.

Another body landed in the clearing, male this time. He looked over at the girls and, after ascertaining that neither was hurt and both were calming down, slowly approached the Suna team.

"You are… Gaara, correct?"

Gaara nodded, arms crossed and ready to use his sand to kill this boy if he needed to… or just wanted to.

"Right. Uh…" He rubbed the back of his head, looking appropriately uncomfortable. "I don't… I'm sor… I offer you my apologies for my teammate's actions. Daiya is slightly mentally unstable and due to her clan's nature, she reacts rather strongly to the sight and smell of blood. We are under orders to prevent her from gaining a taste of it under any circumstances without our sensei's permission."

After several more seconds, he seemed to remember something. "Ah!" He bowed. Perhaps the bow was what he had forgotten? "I hope that despite this incident, our teams may continue to meet without any undue antagonism or dislike."

Gaara wasn't sure how to react. Temari took the reins for just a second, and opened up a whole new can of worms. "Her clan?"

The boy scratched the back of his purple-haired head. "Well… yeah. She's, um, a Ketsueki."

"A what?"

o.o.o.o.o

"I've never heard of them." Kakashi mentioned as he and the foreign kunoichi exchanged stories about their genin teams.

"I'm not surprised." Kinishi snorted. "The clan had one main rule, and that was to keep its existence secret. Unfortunately, that same rule is what brought them to civil war."

"A civil clan war?"

"Yep. They took each other out with biological warfare that only targeted full-blooded clan members. Daiya's all that's left, and even then…"

"What? So she's the last of the clan?" Maybe he should introduce the girl to Sasuke and Haku. If they knew that there was another—

"Not quite. The Ketsueki had trouble propagating. There were methods to change a non-clan member into a clan member, but they were long and arduous, painful to the extreme. Relationships outside the clan were completely banned unless the loved one was prepared to go ahead with the change."

"So…"

"Daiya," Kinishi continued, "Was the child of a Ketsueki clan member and a non-member. Her mother underwent the change soon after Daiya's birth. Three years later, the viruses were exchanged on both sides and all the full Ketsueki were wiped out. Halflings like Daiya are rare, and the other four that anyone knew existed were all killed by the dying full members."

"Huh." Kakashi supposed it was a rather interesting story. "So can she use her clan techniques?"

"Not if she wants to stay out of trouble." Kinishi grinned at him. "After all, the Ketsueki had many powers, but they had the unfortunate tendency to go mad using them."

Kakashi wondered whether it was a good thing that Robin had already split off to help with proctoring the second exam. A tired laugh drew his attention back to Kinishi as her eyes grew both soft in recollection and hard in heart.

"The greatest problem is that Daiya's plenty mad already."

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto glanced up as he noticed that Sasuke had come back from scouting ahead for the night. Sakura had built the fire already, and Naruto had been the one to get the wood and survival stuff like branches and things.

"Who is that?"

Sakura's voice carried, and Naruto noticed with a start that Sasuke had someone with him someone who was heavily limping and covered in mud and blood. He noticed the red hair and thought for a second that it was the creepy girl, but relaxed marginally as he realized that it wasn't anywhere near curly enough, and that the odd glinting was probably because of a pair of glasses. He even recognized the hitai-ate, even if he couldn't really tell _which_ village it was, just that it was one.

"I found her being attacked by a giant boar. Her teammates are both dead, and she was about to be."

Sakura digested that for a moment, and Naruto for a moment longer, and then they rushed forward to help. If the girl's teammates were dead—and they trusted Sasuke to check—then she wasn't going to try to steal their scroll or kill them, especially if Sasuke had just saved her life.

"What's your name?" Sakura asked as she helped clean one of the girl's wounds. The girl didn't answer, and just continued to stare into the fire.

"She hasn't talked yet." Sasuke offered. "I think she's still in shock."

"Maybe she'll talk after eating?" Naruto suggested. "Or after she sleeps a little?"

Sakura bit her lip. She wished she could help, but dealing with psychological shock wasn't on the curriculum, or something she had learned from Kakashi or any of the other sensei. "Maybe."

o.o.o.o.o

The next morning dawned quietly, and Sakura was the first to shake their temporary add-on awake. The girl woke up normally, even making a few noises as she yawned and stretched. Sakura felt a wave of pity hit her, because she could _see_ the moment that the girl remembered what had happened to her. This moment was quickly followed by increasingly violent hyperventilation that threatened to turn into large, wracking sobs at any moment judging by the tears in the girl's eyes.

"Hey, listen. I'm sorry about your teammates, but you need to calm down, okay?" Sakura took her by the shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. Something about what she'd done must have helped, because the girl's breath began to slow, and she curled up in on herself to cry quietly instead of in a way that might draw attention.

"Sakura-chan?" Sakura resisted the urge to squeak in surprise as Naruto's whisper hit her ears. "What's wrong with her?"

Sakura didn't hit him, knowing that the reason he had snuck up on her was so that he wouldn't draw their guest's attention.

"She just woke up," Sakura whispered back, "And I think she just remembered what happened to her teammates."

Naruto frowned and slowly sat down next to Sakura, careful not to spill the ramen that Sakura only just now realized he was holding. "Do you think… do you think she would be better off if we got Sasuke here? I mean, he saved her, so she probably feels safer around him…"

Robin told dozens of stories, and after a while, Kakashi started telling them too, urged by his somewhat-new friend's actions. The stories had the odd effect of ingraining certain patterns in their heads, psychological ones, like knowing that a person would feel safe around someone that had saved their life, whether they realized they felt that way or not. Naruto in particular had taken to learning these patterns, imbuing them, practically.

Sakura shrugged, and then Naruto did something that probably helped a lot more than it would have for anyone else, knowing his luck.

He walked up to the girl and held out his ramen. "Do you want some breakfast?"

She stared at him.

Several seconds passed that way, and Naruto started to feel uncomfortable. The girl then ducked her head and nodded slowly, a tiny nod. Naruto sat down next to her and put the ramen in her hands, wrapping her hand around the chopsticks after she made no move to do so herself.

"Hey, I'm Naruto. That's Sakura-chan, and the guy that saved you was Sasuke." Naruto pointed around the clearing, finally landing on the still sleeping form of his male teammate. "We're from Konoha. What about you?"

"Kusagakure." Her voice was a whisper, and she still sounded broken, but not as badly as before.

"Okay. What about your name?" Naruto pushed the question, but gently.

"K-Karin."

Naruto smiled brightly at her, and she smiled hesitantly back. "See? That wasn't so hard!"

Karin ducked her head back down, fiddling with her glasses. Naruto wondered if he should have been quieter. Did shock victims react badly to loud noises or something? That would make sense, but it wasn't necessarily true just because it would make sense.

"Oi, what are you doing?" It looked like Sasuke was awake, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He got up heavily, and trudged over to the group.

He nodded to Karin, who blushed and looked at the ground. "Th-thank you."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, but sighed and rubbed the back of his head, possibly in slight embarrassment. "Well, I wasn't just going to watch you be killed."

Karin seemed to scrunch up in on herself a little more; she took a few bites of the ramen, almost as if to distract herself or use the action as a shield. Naruto frowned at that. He poked her in the side. "C'mon, stop that. You're acting like one of that jerk's fangirls."

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed at him, glaring. Ah, right. Sakura was a fangirl. Or at least used to be. Or maybe she was just upset that he wasn't being nice to Karin. Whatever.

"So what's your name, then? You probably already told these two, but I don't trust the idiot to have introduced us all the way he should have." Sasuke ignored Naruto's glare in favor of sitting down next to Karin, albeit a safe distance away so that she would feel neither alone nor crowded.

"Karin."

Sasuke nodded, not concerned about the fact that she'd left her clan or family name out. Some ninja didn't have them for whatever reason, and some just didn't like them, or kept them secret to keep from giving away their attacks. "Right. I'm Uchiha Sasuke. That's Haruno Sakura, and the idiot is—"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be the next Hokage, dattebayo!"

Karin dropped the ramen, and Naruto glanced from the ramen to Karin's open-mouthed face.

"What?"

"You're an Uzumaki?"

Naruto blinked, tilting his head to the side. He scrunched up his eyes and scratched the back of his head. "Ano, yeah? I mean, it's my name and all. I never knew my parents, but Jii-san said that I got my mom's family name, so—"

He was bowled over as Karin suddenly crashed into him and hugged him unimaginably tightly.

"Uh…" Naruto looked over at his teammates, searching for an explanation. Neither seemed to understand what was going on. Karin seemed to be crying into his jumpsuit.

Sasuke frowned at them for a second, with a look of suspicion and disbelief. "Karin, what's your clan name?"

Karin sat up moving back so that she was no longer half-sitting on Naruto. "My full name is Uzumaki Karin. I thought the rest of the clan had been destroyed."

She wiped her eyes, and offered Naruto a wobbly grin. "Hello, cousin."

o.o.o.o.o

Robin sat in the Tower in the middle of Training Ground Forty Four, legs crossed and hands at her shoulders. Her eyes were closed as she sprouted 'viewpoints' in a several dozen yard radius around the Tower's walls. She could see in every direction, and watched out for teams that could come trickling in early. Only two teams had made it so far, and while she was acquainted with the Suna team, she didn't know the mercenary group at all other than through what little she had heard from Kinishi before Robin had needed to split ways with the younger woman and Kakashi.

A chunin, one that was meant to guard the tower doors and greet new arrivals, rushed into the room. "Nico-san! There's been an incident! They're requesting all back up Tokubetsu Jounin and higher!"

Robin let her eyes vanish elsewhere, and stood up to look at the young man. "Take me to whoever is distributing orders. What happened?"

The chunin gulped nervously, sincerely hoping that he would not be the eponymously shot messenger. "Orochimaru's gone after Hatake's team."

Robin began to run.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: About Karin… I like fluff, okay?! I've just been in a really fluffy mood for the past few weeks, and I can't get it out of my system. I mean, I'd **_**planned**_** the scene several months in advance, but it wasn't supposed to come up for a few more chapters. Still…**

**Contest**

**Anyone who wants to design a headband for the supposed mercenary group can. If I like it enough, it will be considered "canon" for this storyline.**

**OC Identities**

**Now, congratulations to ****xXTheWingedOneXx****, who was the only one to guess **_**who**_** the team was. For those of you who have read my other works, particularly AK:PCO, you'll recognize these guys (if you don't, just treat them as any other random OCs). They're Phoenix Corporation Agents. In particular, Goldstone, Diamond, Chimera, and Opal.**

**Her reasoning: **Well, someone has probably figured this out before me, but it's the Phoenix Corporation. The 'Ketsueki' name was the clue for me—it means 'blood,' right? And then the sensei had 'Kin' which was 'gold,' so the combination of psychotic redhead involving blood and a woman with brown hair and the word gold combined and I thought of Diamond and Goldstone.

So… Daiya is Diamond, Kinishi is Goldstone, Torame is Chimera I'm guessing, and Sakkaku is Opal (Ookami, a wolf—fitting for a werewolf).

As I said, someone probably got it already, but still. Diamond is even more frightening when you consider that she's in the chunin exams...I pity any team that goes after that one.

**Here's an explanation for the names (you can skip this if you don't know or care who they are):**

**Kinishi is kin (gold) and ishi (stone). Daiten is from Dai-tenshi, which is archangel. This is Agent Goldstone (her alternate form is that of an angel, albeit a deadly, vicious one; it will not come into play).**

**Daiya is one of the words for diamond. Ketsueki means something along the lines of blood and murder. This is Agent Diamond (also known as the Blood Mage in her base stories).**

**Torame is tora (tiger) and me (eye). Yagira is something along the lines of "from goat" (goat = yagi). This is Agent Chimera (his stone is a tiger's eye gem, and a goat is one of the three heads on a chimera).**

**Ookami is werewolf. Sakkaku is electric/electricity. This is Agent Opal (her lycanthropy has been nullified for this story due to being something from beyond this universe's set limits on Suspension of Disbelief, though her propensity for electric attacks will be left).**

**All their powers have been suppressed to hover around the standard level for the shinobi that made it to the prelims in canon and to regular Jounin levels for Goldstone/Kinishi. They have their backstory and everything, so they're really just regular OCs as far as this story is concerned.**

**Okay, you can look again.**

**Of course, the promised Omake, and the prompt for such: **Could we see, perhaps, exactly how far out-of-proportion the story about Robin has grown? Who's heard of it and what they think, kind of thing.

…**That won't be an Omake. I'll turn it into a full-blown chapter, mostly because it's almost exactly what the last Interlude chapter was like, and I feel it's time for another.**

**Enjoy your cliffhanger!**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	23. Hissy, Hissy, Little Snakey

**A/N: Some people mentioned that the OCs are making the story darker. This isn't quite true. The story **_**is**_** getting darker, but not because of the OCs. Team Kinishi is just one symptom, not the cause, of the disease. This chapter should prove that, just by what happens to Haku.**

**Also, I wasn't quite sure how to write Orochimaru, so I just went for patronizing, arrogant, and creepy. And a teensy bit… flamboyant? Fruity, maybe? I'm not really sure, but he ended being a little Camp. Like, with italics. Everywhere.**

o.o.o.o.o

Robin was always a strange woman. She was the kind of woman whose actions always reached far, whether she meant for them to do so or not. Even the slightest word to the right person, or the wrong one, from her, tended to have unexpected consequences.

Of course, in this particular case, it was not a word or a similarly small action that caused people to take notice. It was her actions at Nami no Kuni.

Ghost stories were never dismissed out of hand in the world of shinobi. Old ones were used as possible leads on the scavenging of historical jutsu, and new ones were always, _always_ investigated.

And Robin? Well, she had turned into a ghost story for the lower levels of nukenin and mercenaries for a reason, after all.

The Chunin Exams at Konoha had a larger attendance rate than normal. A new high-level shinobi, or even ally, as it were, was not something that was to be taken lightly. The causation of such stories as Robin's was something that information specialists took note of. It's why the villages sent more genin to take the exams. It meant sending more Jounin to investigate this possibly S-rank anomaly. Even smaller villages and non-entities like mercenary organizations had taken the plunge to send a team or two more than they normally would have.

Of course, Robin's presence had other consequences as well, than just the suspicion of other villages.

Haku and Zabuza should have died, but had instead managed to secure the aid of Konoha for the rebellion in Kirigakure.

Sasuke was closer to his teammates, far closer than he would have been, because he had someone nearby that had a similar story as his own, and no tolerance for his bull.

Naruto did not fear the rejection of his friends for the Kyuubi, and was learning, however slowly, to think things through.

Sakura, with a strong female role model to look up to, was taking her training more seriously than she would have otherwise, particularly since Robin was not the kind of woman who gave her approval lightly.

Kakashi had a friend. And lots of rumors surrounding that friend. But let's not get into that.

Of the enemies?

Well, Orochimaru was wondering just what kind of power this woman must have had to inspire such change.

And if it was a Kekkei Genkai?

Heheh.

A penny for your thoughts, darlings?

Kukukukuku…

o.o.o.o.o

Robin wasn't as fast as the shinobi that she surrounded herself with. She knew that, and she also knew that, despite that, she would not be left behind.

Robin was certain of this mostly because she ran into Zabuza quite early on, and was wordlessly picked up and swung around to cling to his back in the manner of a child.

Ah, well. She didn't much mind. Zabuza was not quite as quick as Kakashi, but he was plenty quick despite that.

He was also quite a good ally to have in a fight against a high-level opponent such as this Orochimaru, as was Haku, who followed Zabuza out of principle. Robin didn't know where Kakashi was, and if he wasn't on his way already, almost didn't want to.

She felt cold metal bouncing against her leg, and was reminded that even without her Devil Fruit, she was not without defense.

A good pistol was always handy, in the worlds of ninjas and pirates.

o.o.o.o.o

Sakura bit her lip, tears blurring her eyes as she bandaged her comrades. Dear Kami, that had been _terrifying_.

Sasuke had been bitten, and there was a strange marking left on his shoulder. Naruto was unconscious, and Sakura had little doubt that it was a result of Orochimaru slamming his hand into his stomach, something that likely had something to do with the Kyuubi. And Karin…

Karin had been the one to warn them in the first place. The girl was terrifyingly sensitive to chakra, and though she had at first been horrified to feel what she had from Naruto—

_You're one of the demons that the little girl talked about!_

—She had quickly come around and come to the conclusion that family was family, no matter what they held. And once they realized just what she was capable of, they had put her front and center to warn them, promising that if she did so, they would protect her. Karin was far from being an offensive shinobi, but she had her uses despite that. However, her inability to fight very well, as good as she was with sensing and masking chakra signatures, was what led to her being the first to fall.

Of course, she also took the simplest injuries from the snake-obsessed madman, and was thus the first to wake.

Sakura's head whipped over as she heard a groan from the redheaded girl, who sat up slowly, one hand pressed to her head.

"Karin-chan!" It hadn't taken long for Sakura to decide on how to treat Karin, and the two had grown strangely close in those few hours before…

"Karin, are you hurt anywhere that I can't see?" Sakura opened up her first aid pack, measly as it now was after being used on the boys, and started fussing over Karin.

"No, I'm… I'm fine. How are…" Her eyes landed on the boys and her face paled. "No. No, no, no…"

Her voice grew faster with every word, and Sakura grabbed Karin's shoulders before she got too worked up. "Hey, hey, look at me. They're fine. I… I'm not sure if they're fine right _now_, but they will be. Okay?"

Karin took deep, gasping breaths, trying to not hyperventilate, and nodded. There was a look in her eyes that showed just how desperate she was to believe Sakura. Her cousin and her savior… no, she didn't want to see a scratch on either one of them.

Karin turned her head and allowed her eyes to rake over Sakura, noting the injuries, minor as they were, that the pink-haired kunoichi had suffered herself and apparently had yet to treat.

"Bite me."

Sakura blinked at Karin, not quite believing her ears. "What? No! That's completely—!"

"My blood has healing properties. Better that I lose some, and you be ready to fight off anyone that tries to attack while we're down, than both of us to stay exhausted, injured, and half-dead." Karin's words had an air to them, business-like and detached, as though this was not the first time she had said these words, and that she suspected it would not be the last.

Sakura stared for a few seconds, and then rushed forward as Karin took out a kunai and held it to her forearm, high enough to bleed and not be fatal. "What do you think you're doing?" She squealed the words, almost panicked.

"Making the process faster. Kunai scars are easier to explain than bite scars, anyway." Karin pushed one sleeve up, and Sakura watched in horror as bite marks, half a dozen in total, were unveiled on Karin's arm. The kunai came down lightly, hardly biting into the skin before Karin took it away. "Go ahead, just a little will be enough for what happened to you. The boys…"

Sakura weighed the odds, and eventually decided to go along with Karin's plan. It was so _wrong…_ but she knew that, as a team, she and her boys needed every advantage they could get.

And Karin, for all her ineptitude in battle, was _definitely_ proving to be an advantage.

o.o.o.o.o

Well, this was going… badly.

Robin had tried to end the battle quickly when she first ran into Orochimaru, wanting to help the young woman that was trying to kill the man herself. Unfortunately, snapping his neck had not been possible, as he apparently had a technique that could increase the number of vertebrae in his neck, forcing it to grow and bend as unnaturally as a snake's. It certainly fit his theme, Robin admitted, but it would make the fight that much more difficult.

(Futile as the attempt was, Anko was thankful for the distraction that it had provided for her to slip away and plan her next attack.)

Robin's attack had been the first of the arriving forces sent to back up Mitarashi Anko, but not the last.

Haku's icy senbon were quite effective when sent out in a spray, particularly when he and Zabuza worked in tandem to send the senbon in the right direction through mist. However, this technique seemed to work even better when one last variable was added:

Many, many heads sprouting from trees and singing a pirate song, disorienting and more than a little creepy.

The senbon seemed to hit, but then Orochimaru did something quite unexpected. He unhinged his jaw, as unhinged as his own sanity was, and vomited out a rather interesting thing: himself.

"Oh my, a Yuki? I thought they'd all died out in the Kiri bloodline purges!" Orochimaru gave a small clap, balancing somewhere on a line between genuinely delighted and extremely sarcastic. "I would love to have you for an experiment or three. Well? Or, if you're willing to procreate on demand, I have quite a few nubile young kunoichi under my command that would be quite happy to help you in that endeavor. What do you say, eh?"

Robin couldn't see him through the mist, not yet, but she could imagine the look on Haku's face at that suggestion. She frowned and closed her eyes (she would have to work on that. Closed eyes in the middle of battle were a liability), growing a clone of herself where she knew Zabuza and Haku to be, and dispersed her original body.

She had been right. Haku didn't look happy at all, and seemed rather sickened. Zabuza, next to him, gripped his sword with white knuckles. He was angry, and even through his bandages, the clenched jaw was visible.

There was a small noise on the other side of Orochimaru, or where he had been when Robin had last checked, and then there was the chirping of birds.

Ah. So Kakashi _was_ here. That was a load off of her mind.

The chirping of birds was quickly followed by a loud shout of "DYNAMIC ENTRY!" This particular attack ended in the noise of splintering, shattering, nearly exploding wood.

A fireball raced its way through the mist, burning it off like the sun's rays did the morning fog. Zabuza frowned to see his technique so easily gone, but shrugged it off when he realized that the fireball, one of Sarutobi Asuma's, had actually clipped Orochimaru's arm. The limb in question was hanging slightly limp, but Orochimaru didn't seem very dissuaded. In fact, he was grinning at them. "Oh, you _are_ fun. To think that sensei thought so highly of me as to send his best to fight me? Anko was a bit of a wild cannon, though. Tell me, dear, did you ever get a _decent_ promotion under your belt?"

The kunoichi did not reply verbally, preferring to send a spread of kunai in her former teacher's direction instead.

The man waved a finger at her as he dodged a swing of the Kubikiri Hochou. "Now, now, dear. Didn't I ever teach you _manners?!_"

The last words were a scream as Kakashi connected a Chidori to Orochimaru's chest, only to find mud collapsing over his arm. All this time, they had been fighting an earth clone.

"You know," Orochimaru's voice came from above them, and there was a smile in his tone. "A medical specialist of mine developed a special poison for me a while ago, and a few of my snakes have it in their fangs as well. Would you like to know what it does?"

Gai sent a kick through another tree, shaking Orochimaru out of its branches. Robin drew her pistol silently, surreptitiously, and held it poised to bring up into position.

"It _rots_ the area around the bite, rendering it completely _useless_," He ducked a snake, one of the few that were loyal to Anko, and spun around to parry a swing from Zabuza. "Then, it spreads to the rest of the body, _paralyzing_ it. The subject would die of complete paralysis, organs and all, within a _week_ without the antidote or a sufficiently talented _medic_. Thankfully, it leaves most tissue samples other than those around the entry site _unharmed_."

Orochimaru landed lightly on the branch next to Haku, a snake slithering out of his collar and towards the youngest person in the clearing. He smiled even as Haku let out a scream, continuing on as though he hadn't just caused a highly venomous snake to bite the boy. "That way, even if you resist, I'll still be able to take a few sperm samples from your _borrowed_ corpse to, shall we say, _repopulate_ the Yuki clan."

Robin shot.

Now, the funny thing about pistol was that they were generally quite a bit faster than kunai and senbon, even those that came from a launcher. A pistol from Robin's era may not have been very advanced compared to what many in our day and age would consider worthwhile, but it was still quite a bit faster than most weapons that shinobi encountered without Raiton enhancement. It also had a rather good aim, or at least better than most human hands.

Thus, you can imagine poor Orochimaru's surprise when he felt a small metal ball tear its way into his abdomen, and out his belly. And then there was another, this time stopping against his shoulder blade with a sickening crack. By the time the third one came, he had already spun around to intercept it with a small kunai.

He smiled at her. "What an interesting weapon, and no chakra either! Why, even a civilian could use it, it appears!"

And then he was shooting across the clearing, snakes slipping out of his sleeves, straight towards Robin. "I'd like a sample for myself, if you don't mind."

"Oh, but I _do_ mind, Orochimaru-dono."

And then there were arms.

Everywhere.

Hand after hand reached out to snag at Orochimaru's clothing, though he managed to slip through quite a few. However, he was still unable to avoid them all, and was soon held in place by Robin's many arms.

He still just laughed. "Oh, that _is_ a lovely power. Is it a Kekkei Genkai? A kinjutsu? Oh, never mind, I'll find out eventually anyway. I suppose I should get out of this predicament first, though."

He snapped his head back, and Robin prepared to catch the slimy body that would no doubt slither its way out, ignoring, with great difficulty, the screams still coming from Haku.

"_Cut it off!_"

But it wasn't a body that came out of Orochimaru's mouth. It was a snake.

The snake opened its mouth as well, but it didn't bite anyway. Oh, no, no, _no_. It spewed something out as well.

Namely, a sword.

"_Kusanagi…_" Zabuza's voice was breathless, as though he couldn't quite believe his eyes. Haku's screams had quieted, but Robin didn't dare look yet, fearing the worst. And Robin was _very_ good at coming up with the worst.

"Tell me, do you think you can fight a legendary sword such as this?" Orochimaru tilted his head as the snake retreated back into his mouth, and the sword stayed where it was in the air, floating, as though held up in the air by an invisible knight.

"_Chidori!_" Kakashi rushed forward, hand sparking, but only hit air as Robin's hands disappeared in a puff of smoke. Not true Hana Hana no Mi arms, then, but the Kage Bunshin mods that had disappeared with the first strike of the Kusanagi.

Zabuza rushed forward with a raw yell, bandages covered in blood, no doubt incensed at what had happened to Haku. Unfortunately for him, his only reward was to find his sword cut cleanly in two by Orochimaru's blade.

"Oh? Getting _angry_, are we? But we were having so much _fun._"

Zabuza swung back around with the shortened blade, and managed to cut a long gash in the side of Orochimaru's face. An brief flicker of irritation crossed the snake Sannin's face, but it disappeared in favor of interest when he noticed the great Kiri-forged blade rebuilding itself.

"What an _intriguing_ sword! You know, I had the _pleasure_ of speaking with an old _comrade_ of yours a while ago. I'm _sure_ you remember him. Hoshigaki Kisame? _His_ sword had a rather _special_ little ability as well."

"Don't mention that traitor's name around me." Zabuza growled, flinging himself forward once more.

Orochimaru danced out of the way, straight into the path of about a dozen daggers being swung by his target spot at once. He disappeared in a poof of smoke, revealing a log to be destroyed in his place. "Oh, getting _creative_ with our _teamwork_ now, are we?"

He grinned down at them, easily avoiding an ash cloud from Asuma, and then waved in Haku's direction almost coquettishly, though there was a scary dearth of anything sexual in the motion. "Goodbye, little Yuki. I'll come by for you later."

And then he was gone.

Zabuza cursed and ran back to Haku's prone form. He gathered up the young boy in his arms as Kakashi approached Robin to offer a ride back to the Tower.

Robin was used to seeing injuries. Knowing the people she did, it was hard not to.

But it was still hard to keep her eyes off of the stump that was once Haku's left arm.

o.o.o.o.o

Gaara frowned. He could smell blood, the scent of it driving Shukaku to screams.

The problem was, he couldn't tell where the blood was coming from. His eyes scanned the room, ignoring the hushed, whispered argument that his siblings were holding only a few feet away, and snapped his head to the side when the smell of it became sharper.

It was the woman. The one that had spoken to him that day after Kankuro had made a fool of himself. The pirate woman.

There were others with her, one man with white hair and two with black, all three of whom Gaara thought were Jounin-sensei to some of the Konoha teams. They were approached by two other figures, a woman and a man. The woman had red eyes, and was one of the only Konoha Jounin that had stayed after a strange event had drawn the rest out. Presumably as a last line of defense of some sort. The man had a scar across his nose, and didn't seem as experienced as the rest. Perhaps he was a chunin? One of the black-haired Jounin, the spiky-haired one with a cigarette in his mouth, shook his head and said something that caused the two that had stayed in the tower to pale.

"Aw, did the little ice man get a boo-boo?" The high-pitched, sweetly condescending voice startled Gaara slightly, but he had gotten used to it over the past several days, as the voice's owner seemed to have held a strange obsession with him over that time.

Ketsueki Daiya, surprisingly enough, had her eyes trained on the talking group, not on Gaara. She was grinning again, and Gaara found it strange that she would hold such an expression so constantly. He gave a couple seconds' thought to where her sensei and teammates might be, as they were normally following her around to keep her under control, but then dismissed the thought. It didn't matter.

"Ice man?"

Daiya turned to him, head canted just so. Her pigtails fell behind her, almost tangling with one another from the angle as she looked up at him. "You can smell the blood, right? It's a Kekkei Genkai, a strong one. And it isn't a silly eye-thingy, or something. It's the girly ice man, boy, that I saw in the town."

"Ice man?" Gaara repeated, as though to make sure.

Daiya shrugged. "Yuki clan, Kiri, they had Hyoton. They got wiped out a couple years after the Ketsueki, I think. I got a taste of some stored blood as a kid, and by _gods_ was it amazing."

Gaara nodded, not finding any of this strange. This wasn't the first time the girl had talked about the taste of blood (apparently, civilian blood was alright, shinobi blood was better, Kekkei Genkai blood was fine dining, and Jinchuuriki blood was a delicacy), and he doubted it would be the last.

"D'you think I should tell them that Kinishi-sensei's an iryou-nin?" Daiya's head was tilted to the side again.

"Would the 'ice boy' be a good opponent?" Gaara decided that the "ice man" sounded a little too young, going by Daiya's words.

"Mm… probably." Daiya shrugged.

"Then yes." Gaara was silent for several more moments, and then finally voiced a question he'd had for several days. "What does your sensei _do_?"

"Eh?"

Gaara shook his head, reminding himself of the fellow redhead's easily distracted nature. "You just said that she is a medic, and yet you also speak as though she is a fighter. There is also the fact that I have not yet heard you speak a word regarding her teaching ability."

"She sucks at taijutsu and genjutsu. She's good with kunai and naginata. She _really_ good with ninjutsu and sealing. And she's awesome at healing. Oh, and scolding people, usually me." Daiya rattled it off without a care in the world.

"I… see." Gaara nodded. At least the answer existed.

Daiya grinned at him and skipped away.

Gaara stared after her.

She was… strange.

But in a good way.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: This is **_**not**_ **going to be Gaara/Daiya. Just putting that out there, before you all start thinking. They get along better than I planned, but there won't be a romance. Mostly because of Yagira, for reasons I'll explain during Daiya's fight in the prelims. Most of the fights will be chosen via random number generator, but Daiya and Gaara's opponents are already picked out. And no, they aren't fighting each other.  
>Also, that last sentence? Only crazy-Gaara's perspective. No one else's.<br>And there were a few strange discrepancies in her talk with Gaara. Anyone think they can point them out?**

**I honestly think I might have made Orochimaru a little too overpowered/OOC, but I'll leave it as-is for now.**

**By the way: I'm pretty sure any of the four Konoha Jounin could kick Kinishi's a** as I've written her. Maybe not Asuma, but Gai and Kakashi are too fast for her, while Kurenai specializes in her weakness.**

**So, I'm BACK! Why was I gone? Well, uh…**

**There was a point at which I didn't go home at a reasonable time in over two weeks. I was teching at the school play, and it's all I could do to stay awake. Particularly since any mistake I made could end with someone getting brained by a sewage pipe. It's over, now, but there was a while where I was spending an average of fifteen hours a day at school.**

**My Spanish grade isn't very good, so I need to fix that up soon. Sorry, but school comes first.**

**There's a choir thing that I can't explain to you at the moment, but it eats away at my free time.**

**Oh, and I went to the kinesiologist, got some blood work done, and found out the following:**

**I'm anemic (iron anemia, in particular).  
>I have a severe Vitamin D deficiency, more than most people.<br>I have hypothyroidism, secondary to a hypopituitary issue (makes me tired, makes me lose my hair, makes me forgetful, may be affecting my adrenal glands).  
>I'm hypoglycemic (low blood sugar; makes me tired).<br>I've got hypochlorhydria (low gastric acid, which means food is just sitting in my lower intestine and putrefying instead of being digested; so even if I eat enough, I can't digest it. Probably why I'm so skinny).  
>I'm on the verge of being pre-diabetic (this is my fault. I eat a lot of candy because I'm always tired, supposedly due to the hypoglycemia, and that apparently caused my chances of contracting diabetes to go up).<br>The joint pains might be caused by gout.  
>I may have a chronic viral infection (which would explain why I always feel like my nose is stuffy in the winter).<br>There are weird imbalances in my nutrient levels.**

**So, please… don't blame me too much for my recent problems, okay? I'm dealing. Or, at least, trying to deal. Cut me some slack, okay?**

**I actually finished a multi-chapter story. ****Dead Men Tell No Tales****, a collaborative fic with Dark-heika, recently finished up part one (only six chapters long, but the next two will be longer), and the sequel will be posted in about a month. It's not a very popular one for some reason, but I enjoyed writing it, so go look at it.**

**StrongGuy159****: You've been blocked. I've given multiple requests without naming people, but you seem determined to ignore me. If you feel like enabling your PM system to talk, fine, but I don't want you reviewing again. Every time I see one of your reviews, I get writer's block.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix.**


	24. The Sound of Victory

**A/N: Seeing as there's been some confusion about this, let me go over this now: Karin is a **_**canon**_** character. She is one of Sasuke's new teammates in Shippuden. Both her status as an Uzumaki and her meeting with Sasuke in the forest have been revealed in the manga. All I changed was that Sasuke decided to bring her back instead of just killing the boar and leaving her there with the corpses of her dead teammates.**

**Also, my version of the Mera-Mera no Mi is obviously AU, in case you've been tracking the manga, since I decided that it was a Deglet Noor. The inclusion was written prior to its inclusion in the canon storyline, however, so I feel that I don't need to go back and change that minor detail unless you guys **_**really**_** want me to. It wouldn't be that big of a change to implement, but first I'd have to figure out what kind of fruit it's actually supposed to **_**be**_ **in canon. 'Cause that thing looks like a giant, bloated raspberry that someone just randomly decided to set on fire.**

o.o.o.o.o

They were so quiet.

Sakura was worried about them, but Karin, her arm bandaged along the cut they had used to draw blood, had assured her that they would wake up soon. Moreover, the healing properties in Karin's blood, and the girl's very chakra, would prevent infection from setting in with any one of them, even Karin herself.

Still, the marking on Sasuke's shoulder was worrying. Sakura had asked Karin if she could sense anything from it, and the girl had just gotten very quiet for a few seconds, and then admitted that there was a chakra emanating from it like slick oil, dark and slimy. Sakura hadn't asked more after that, not wanting to know.

Sakura was the only one awake at the moment, right here in the dark. She and Karin had agreed to take watch in turns and wake each other up if an enemy appeared. Sakura wasn't optimistic regarding their chances if another team showed up and the boys stayed down. She wasn't one of the team's heavy hitters, and Karin had already established herself as a support type, not a fighter. Their best chance in that case would probably be to just hand over one of their scrolls (they had three now; they'd started with a heaven scroll, and won an earth scroll from a Kumo team early on, and Karin's team had had an earth as well). Their spare earth scroll would be easy to hand over and treat as though it was their original, right?

A small, muffled noise drew her attention, and she spun around, kunai already out and poised to throw as another hand was held over her weapons pouch for more.

The noise came again, and she relaxed as she realized what it was.

"S-Sakura-ch-chan?"

"Naruto?" She came closer, a relieved smile on her face. Naruto was awake! He was still a little weak and groggy, but if a fight came their way, then at least she had some backup beyond Karin.

"My chakra feels weird…" With his face screwed up in concentration like that, Naruto was almost cute, in the same way as a small child.

"It'll be fine, Naruto. Orochimaru did something to your stomach, and Karin-chan thinks that whatever it was might have interfered with your seal, because when she concentrated, the chakra from it felt really muffled or something, and she said she could barely sense it." Sakura whispered, rattling off the information that the sensor had given her.

Naruto frowned at that, but sighed, and wriggled around on the ground a little to get more comfortable. "Okay, Sakura-chan. But it feels really jumpy. Like… like it's going up and down a lot."

Sakura bit her lip, but had no real answer. "I don't know. You'll probably have to ask Karin when she takes watch, if you're still awake then."

"M'kay, Sakura-chan…" Naruto closed his eyes and curled up slightly, already going back to sleep.

Sakura shook her head, but still smiled a little as she went back to take watch. Even if Naruto wasn't okay right now, he would be. He was recovering already.

o.o.o.o.o

Sakura woke up to a small rock hitting her back and a clash of metal. She swiftly got up, taking care to not get tangled in her sheets, and pulled out a kunai. Good thing she did, too, seeing as there was someone attacking her only half a second later.

Wait… she recognized this guy. He was the same one that had attacked the guy with the glasses in the waiting area, Kabuto or whoever.

She'd have to watch out for whatever it was that he did with his arms. Those weird metal circles did something, and she wasn't quite sure what.

Sakura kicked a rock, sending it in the boys' direction and hoping that one of them would wake up. Karin, she noticed, was fighting a girl that used genjutsu, but was, while not quite immune, good enough at manipulating her chakra internally that the illusions had trouble taking root and holding on. At least that was one thing on their side.

Sakura winced as she moved backward to avoid the brunt of the sound-based attack sent her way. It was impossible to avoid, but it weakened over distance, at least. Sounds always did, even the nasty ones.

"Pink hair, really?" The boy snorted. "You're a disgrace to shinobi."

Sakura narrowed her eyes, but was distracted by a shout that gave her a sudden rush of hope.

"_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!_" Naruto's yell echoed across the clearing, and Sakura noticed with a fierce rush of glee that the other male member of the Oto team was being soundly thrashed.

Of course, that was when her attention was brought back to her own fight. Thankfully, knowing that she had backup only made her more confident in her odds. As the boy turned his attention back to her and away from the mess of orange, he was met with a fist heading toward his face from an angry pinkette.

"Shannaro!" Sakura barked, her smile more animal than human.

With Naruto's help, they sent the Oto team packing.

o.o.o.o.o

Two days later, Robin's eyes flew open, and she quickly turned her head to face one of the chunin assigned to deal with incoming teams.

"North end, two incoming teams."

"Village?"

"Both Konoha."

"Do you know their sensei?"

"Hatake Kakashi and Yuuhi Kurenai."

"Any oddities?"

"There's a young kunoichi from Kusa traveling with them, but she does not appear to have any teammates."

"Thank you, Nico-san. We'll send someone now."

Robin nodded and turned back to her job.

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi blinked down at his students, frowning at the fact that they seemed to have multiplied while he was gone. Well, that was an exaggeration. There was only one extra person, a girl from Kusagakure that seemed to be clinging to them like a burr.

"Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke. I'm glad to see that you all made it through alright. But why don't you introduce me to your new friend?" Kakashi eye-smiled down at them, his tone just slightly warning.

"This is Karin." Sasuke took the lead with the explanation, garnering a dirty look from Naruto, dirtier than normal. Sasuke's explanation was frank and, at first glance, rather tactless. "Her teammates were killed by a giant boar in the forest, but I managed to step in and kill it before it finished the job."

Sasuke, your sense of discretion continues to amaze us all.

Naruto glared at Sasuke even harder and stepped closer to Karin, bumping his shoulder against her in what was probably meant to be a comforting manner. Kakashi noticed this, being a Jounin, and waved at it with one hand. "And why is Naruto so… protective?"

"Um…" Naruto seemed to be having trouble articulating, while Karin herself seemed to be in a bit of a funk after Sasuke's less-than-sensitive words.

"She's an Uzumaki!" Sakura blurted out, and Kakashi took a step back as though thrown by the force of her words.

"Huh…" Kakashi mused, trying not to appear surprised. "I thought the Uzumaki were all dead except Naruto."

o.o.o.o.o

_Preliminaries_. There were _preliminaries._

Now that just wasn't fair.

Of course, this was only the genin's thoughts on the matter. Quite frankly, the preliminaries were neither fair nor unfair; they just _were._ Of course, to the genin that had just left the Forest of Death, barely escaping with their lives, this was just ridiculous. They were tired, hungry, and in many cases wounded.

Only two teams had gotten to the tower early enough to rest up decently, and neither of them actually needed it.

Naruto glanced around at the teams that had made it in. All the rookies, and that weird spandex team, had made it through. The Oto team had too, as did the two creepy teams, the Suna team and the mercenaries. That was it though… except for Karin. Karin was there too, though she wasn't allowed to participate since her teammates hadn't made it through the Forest alive.

Kakashi approached them after speaking with the Hokage (hey, jii-san was here!), and waved a hand to his teammates, motioning for Karin to stay by Robin.

"Listen, I want both of you," he pointed to the boys, "to come with me _immediately_ after your matches are over, alright? The sooner we fix up those seals you got hit with, the better off you'll be."

Naruto nodded, and then hesitantly asked a question that had been bothering him since a few hours after he'd gotten in to the tower.

"Sensei…?" He waited for Kakashi's attention, and then continued. "Haku and Zabuza said they'd be helping out here to secure trust from Konoha, but I haven't seen them anywhere, so…" He trailed off, not quite sure where he was going with his sentence.

Kakashi was silent for a few moments, and then sighed. "Don't worry yourself about it now. I'll tell you after all your matches are over." Seeing the looks on their faces, he added on a little more. "Don't worry, neither of them is dead."

There was a wave of relief that swept over the team at that statement, and Kakashi couldn't help but reach over and ruffle Sakura's hair. "Come on, my cute little genin. How about you show those teams what you're made of?"

Naruto grinned up at him widely, ready for anything. Sakura's smile was a little more hesitant, but she nodded. Sasuke, as usual, just smirked, but there was a warmth in it that calmed Kakashi down from his worry that the boy was being affected by Orochimaru's cursed seal.

"Alright, now go kick some butt, kids."

o.o.o.o.o

The electronic scoreboard spun, spun, spun, and then it landed on the first name.

_**Gaara**_

It spun some more…

_**vs.**_

And landed on the second name.

_**Yamanaka Ino**_.

There was silence in the room as one combatant appeared in the middle of the room in a silent swirl of sand, and the other walked down with soft footsteps and a trembling body.

_Oops_.

Let the games begin, darlings.

_Let the games begin._

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I should have kept writing. There was so much more left to cover before hitting the desired word count… but you **_**have**_** to admit that I left you with a really good cliffhanger. I've been planning this fight for months, now. It's going to be a good one. Will the fight itself be a good one? No idea. Will the aftermath be interesting? **_**Of course**_ **it will be. This story is all about interpersonal relationships, not action, after all.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix.**


	25. Scream and Fight

**A/N: Someone mentioned that the Ino vs. Gaara prelim's been done before, and tried teasing me about what they **_**thought**_** I was going to do (give me a little credit; I'm not as predictable as you all seem to think I am). My only question is this: where and when has this happened before? I want to read it. It's a cool matchup and I want to see how other stories handle it.**

**Unless there's bashing. Then I don't want to see it at all.**

**Also, I find some of the matchups amusing. I mean, all but two of them are randomized, the first (Gaara's fight) and last (Daiya's fight) of this chapter being the only two that I actually designed. The middle one was a result of the randomizer, but… well, three of the matchups that popped up are just inordinately amusing to me (not the least of which is that Shikamaru ended up fighting a girl **_**again**_**, and it wasn't even on purpose).**

o.o.o.o.o

The fight was a strange one.

Robin and Kakashi stood together up by one of the stands, a level above the genin. They had a better aerial view, which wasn't quite necessary, but it helped imply a level of superiority to the genin, which was in some cases quite necessary.

Ino and Gaara's fight hadn't started normally. Ino's techniques weren't based on taijutsu, weapons, or offensive ninjutsu, so she didn't do anything that would send Gaara into a fit of rage. She was lucky in that respect, as almost anyone else would have quickly had Gaara trying to kill them quickly and mercilessly.

No, instead, Ino tested Gaara mentally. She paced around the edge of the arena, dodging Gaara's attacks the few times they were sent her way, and held her hands clasped behind her back. She spoke lightly, and if her voice quavered now and again, no one commented on it. She questioned him on nearly everything, and prodded every logical fallacy and every loophole she could find in every answer he gave. She didn't sneer, but kept her tone open, friendly, kind enough that it was obvious how out of place it was in the arena. Ino was careful not to anger Gaara, only confuse him further and further, messing with his mind enough to keep herself alive just a few minutes longer.

"Ah."

Robin turned to Kakashi at the small exclamation. "You see something?"

Kakashi chuckled, drawing the attention of the other Jounin. Kurenai smiled knowingly, though Asuma and Gai seemed confused. "Oi, Kakashi. What are you laughing about?" Asuma demanded an answer first, worried as he was about his student.

"She used a bunshin and a mild genjutsu to hide herself." Kakashi explained, and nodded to Kurenai, the genjutsu specialist, to take over.

"Ino created a bunshin at the beginning of the fight, and walked within it for the first few minutes, making small movements to see if Gaara was under its effects. Then she let the bunshin continue walking at a slightly faster speed while she slowed down enough to let some distance build up, still talking with a second genjutsu up to throw her voice. At this point, she and the bunshin are at opposite sides of the arena, given all the circles that they've made." Kurenai pointed to a spot that was directly behind Gaara.

"She's not actually thinking of using one of her family techniques on Gaara-kun, I hope." Robin leveled her gaze at Asuma, who shrugged.

"I don't know. Ino's smart, but she's also headstrong and hasn't exactly interacted much with him. I don't think she's actually been shown what he's capable of." Asuma gnawed slightly on his cigarette.

"Too late." Kurenai said, grim-faced. "She's already lining up her shot."

"She knows what she's doing." Asuma tried to assure himself. "She'll get out of this without any trouble."

And then there was a scream.

o.o.o.o.o

The view that the arena got of Ino and Gaara wasn't very interesting after Ino's three genjutsu (an impressive feat, even if they were all fairly simple ones) dispersed. Ino was on the ground, seemingly unconscious, and Gaara was motionless. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was deep.

The proctor, a purple-haired woman, with a standard-issue ANBU tanto and armor, though bereft of a mask, looked back and forth between the two genin. Familiar enough to know the effects of a Yamanaka technique, she understood that the fight was not necessarily over, but until one or both of the genin showed signs of life beyond breathing, she couldn't call the fight.

There was no movement for twenty seconds, as people simply watched the immobile genin with bated breath, and jumped in shock as Gaara's head fell back and his mouth opened in a wordless scream. His eyes were wide, and there was no sign of just which genin was in control of the body.

He fell to his knees, grabbing his head and muttering, nearly unintelligible, though what could be understood didn't make much sense. Sand lashed around him, like whips, trying to fend off an enemy that was not attacking in a manner physical enough to deflect.

Ino's body still lay as it had, motionless.

Gaara's mutterings grew quieter, the sand calming down just enough to see him clearly. He still clutched at his head, but he no longer clawed at it, no longer gave low moans in what was presumably pain.

Sakura hugged her arms to herself, biting her lip as she stared down at Ino's body. She pleaded for either the girl to wake up or to show that she was in control by making Gaara forfeit.

Then the screams began again, but it wasn't just Gaara this time.

o.o.o.o.o

"I forfeit!"

Asuma's breath left him in a relieved whoosh as Ino gave the proctor her declaration and allowed Gaara to win. She was fine. Terrified, but—

Ino collapsed to the ground, eyes rolled up into the back of her head. Her body began to seize, and it was very clear to everyone that she wasn't using a genjutsu or a Yamanaka technique.

Something was very, very wrong.

Gaara didn't move from his position. His sand was frozen in the air, and lashed out at the proctor when she approached him to get him out of the arena.

It took five minutes, and Temari's involvement, to finally get Gaara to react in anything approaching a civilized manner. His face was blank, eyes glazed, and he didn't talk to anyone, but he allowed his sister to pull him out of the arena by the elbow, barely reacting to the words confirming his victory.

"Maybe you should talk to him."

Robin looked over to Kakashi, blinking. "Why would you suggest that?"

"Maa, maa." Kakashi closed his book, but kept it out and motioned back and forth with it. "You're good with kids, and he seems to like you."

Robin stared across the arena at Gaara, mulling it over. "I suppose I could speak with him after the bouts are over."

Kakashi shrugged, waiting for the next matchup to be announced.

The electric scoreboards spun, spun, spun…

**Haruno Sakura vs. Inuzuka Kiba**

Kakashi relaxed. He knew both the participants this time, and while they were prone to roughhousing and had tempers to rival one another, they were unlikely to kill or seriously injure one another.

He saw Kurenai grow less tense, and the other Jounin in the room all sighed in relief. The matchup wasn't one that would end in disaster.

Except for maybe Sasuke's eardrums, given Naruto's shouts of encouragement for Sakura.

"Kakashi-san?"

He looked down to see who was asking for him, finding a red-haired, nervous genin looking up at him.

"Ah, Karin-chan. What seems to be the problem?"

"What went wrong down there during the first fight? Sakura wasn't allowed to come up and ask since she's a participant and hasn't had her fight yet, but since I'm not fighting…"

Kakashi relaxed. "Ino will probably be fine. Something just seemed to go wrong with one of her family techniques, and Sakura knows what those are. Her father was sent for, and he'll be able to fix things."

Karin stared up at him for a few more seconds, searching what little she could see of his face from red eyes hiding behind thick glass.

She nodded and turned, running back down to where Naruto and Sasuke waited for her, eyes fixed on the fight about to happen down in the arena.

Kakashi turned back to watch Sakura and Kiba.

o.o.o.o.o

He was fast.

She was strong.

He had a partner to help him out.

She had a split personality to push her on.

It was a far more normal fight than the previous one had been.

The fight was mainly taijutsu-oriented, something that made it much easier to watch than the earlier psychological battle. Kakashi had worried, for a short while, that Sakura would use the small mist technique that Zabuza had taught her out of boredom, but then realized that Sakura knew to avoid impeding her own vision when Kiba would be able to follow her by scent.

But while it ruled out ninjutsu of the sort, it did not impede genjutsu.

That failed because Kiba was good at breaking illusions, what with having Kurenai as his sensei.

So Kiba retaliated with a fang-over-fang.

Sakura dodged, throwing out kunai with ninja wire attached, trying to catch Kiba in a manmade spider web.

Kiba tore through the string, but Akamaru, being smaller, still got tangled in the remaining string.

And so on.

Eventually, Sakura actually _did_ manage to catch Kiba in a genjutsu just long enough to close in and hit him with a punch strong enough to break his jaw.

She won.

o.o.o.o.o

Sakura was squealing near-ecstatically as she made her way back up, pumping her fist every several seconds in triumph. She'd managed to get rid of Kiba, who had several advantages on his side that she didn't, namely his clan and a little 'helper.'

"I did it! Naruto, Sasuke-kun, I did it!" She was laughing, extremely happy about her recent win.

She even let Naruto hug her.

And Sasuke-kun actually told her that she'd done a good job!

Then the next fight was called.

o.o.o.o.o

**Ketsueki Daiya vs. Hyuuga Neji**

Kakashi stared at the matchup, mulling it over in his head as Gai shouted something about Youth and Neji and prodigies in his ear.

He'd been told enough about the girl to know that this was probably one of the luckier matchups. Neji would be able to hold his own, maybe even win, if both Gai and Kinishi were accurate about their students' skills and mental stability.

Come to think of it, where _was_ Kinishi? He hadn't seen or spoken to the woman in days. Not that he really wanted to, given how unpleasant she was on occasion, but it was still strange.

Ah. There she was. She was talking to her genin, who seemed to be quite impatient to get down on the floor. Of course, the girl also seemed rather reluctant to ignore or disobey her teacher… who was irritable at the best of times.

Finally, Daiya broke away from the rest of her team and joined Neji on the floor, her face going from a glower to a smirk as she did.

"Hi, hi! You ready to start?" She bounced up and down on her heels, and Kakashi couldn't help but think that the girl seemed far too excited for her round. The difference between her and Neji was striking. Neji looked every bit of the warrior he was supposed to be, while she just looked like a small child hyped up on sugar.

"You should forfeit now."

Kakashi facepalmed. Robin brought a hand up to her mouth, hiding her smile as Gai drooped in disappointment with his student's actions.

"Hm… how about no?" Daiya giggled, coming closer so that the proctor could start the match.

"You're just a brat, unfit to even—"

"_WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?_"

Kakashi saw Kinishi smack her forehead on the other side of the arena.

"How old do I look to you, huh, punk?" Daiya demanded, marching up as close to Neji as she was allowed.

"…Nine, at the most."

Daiya's face twitched. "I'm sixteen."

Silence.

Dead silence.

"Really?" And of course, Naruto was the one to break it.

Daiya stepped away from Neji, sending a withering glare around the room. "I know I look young, but I'm a good sight older than most of the genin in this room. And I would _appreciate it,_" Her tone was mocking, scathing, on those words as she looked at Neji in disgust, "If you would treat me that way."

Neji just stared at her, perplexed.

She didn't look her age.

She had not, until now, acted her age.

And yet she was angry with him for assuming that she _wasn't_ her age?

"Yosh! Neji, beat her with the power of _youth!_"

Lee was probably ecstatic that Neji was the younger in his matchup.

Then again, Lee wasn't particularly intelligent. He was strong, enthusiastic, and willing to follow instructions to the letter when Gai-sensei gave them… but he was a little lacking in the brains department.

"…And people say _I'm_ embarrassing." Daiya snickered, and then smirked at Neji. "Well, _big boy?_ You gonna fight me or what?"

Of course, he attacked her.

o.o.o.o.o

She was fast. Fast enough to dodge most of Neji's attacks.

She didn't fight back, not yet. She just dodged, giggling and laughing and doing her best to drive Neji into a mindless rage.

Unfortunately for her, Neji was very difficult to visibly enrage (unless one happened to be of Main House descent), and her attempts were fruitless and soon grew to bore her.

However, Neji _did_ grow frustrated, he just didn't show it. It was his failure to hit her at all that irritated him, so he decided to take a page out of TenTen's book and just shower the youn- _smaller_ girl with a hail of kunai, _then_ follow up with his Jyuuken.

This… was not very successful.

They bounced off.

The kunai _bounced off._

And she just kept on with that thrice-cursed _giggling_.

Neji clenched his jaw and went back on the offensive, not listening to the girl's explanation of _why_ the kunai had bounced off (something about a diluted bloodline and blood), and continued to try and land a hit.

She was careless, when he finally managed to hit her. Neji didn't want to reveal everything he knew, not in the _preliminaries_, so he didn't go all out, and even holding back, he'd managed to land a hit.

And now she was coughing up blood.

He almost smirked in satisfaction.

Daiya stared at her hand, almost in fascination, looking at the blood on it. The proctor readied herself to call the match, and barely flinched when Daiya screamed.

Up in the stands, the Suna nin began to wonder if she was going to react like Gaara did to injury, rare as it was.

But she didn't. No, no, no… that scream devolved into more mad laughter, and when she finally let her head drop to look at Neji again, it was with a grin. Her eyes seemed redder, the pupils less round. "Oh, I am going to have _fun_ with you."

Then she finally went on the offensive.

Neji couldn't block everything. He could barely block anything. Diaya was literally bouncing off the walls, her speed almost up to par with Lee when he was without weights (though not quite to the point of Gai, or of Lee with the Gates open). She had a single kunai in each hand, and seemed to alternate between that and trying to, of all things, _bite_ him, a move he associated with Inuzuka and few others.

He hit some tenketsu when she passed, on occasion, slowing her down, but even that wasn't enough to keep her from finally getting her goal.

Her teeth swept along his palm at one point, presumably sharpened somehow, and she came away bloody-mouthed.

There was silence for several seconds, and then muffled cursing coming from the boy in the stands that just so happened to be her teammate.

Daiya turned to Neji, eyes closed. She swayed where she stood, and her teeth seemed to grow ever sharper, her smile near ecstatic. "Oh, blood with a Kekkei Genkai… it's been _so long_ since I've had some… like a rare wine, I'd say."

She opened her eyes slowly, her smile moving to become a smirk, and Neji flinched as he saw Daiya's pupils and iris.

Red iris. Slit pupil. And a smirk that told him to prepare for pain.

This was why no one ever allowed a Ketsueki to taste their blood.

Daiya hissed and attacked him, her laughably small body crossing the space in record time. She giggled and swiped at him with a hand that seemed almost clawed, and everything was suddenly ten times more difficult, more bloody, more painful.

The rest of the fight was a blur to Neji, and he finally just gave up and _used_ the main house techniques.

Sixty-four hits were sent Daiya's way.

Sixty-four hits landed.

And she fell to the ground, internal organs on the fritz, nearly dead.

Neji didn't think anyone would blame him for nearly killing her.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin leaned forward to get a better view of what was going on in the arena, frowning. The fight had been a bad one, but she'd seen worse in her time. She was more concerned for the participants' mental health. She didn't get a good feeling from Neji, and Daiya was rather blatant in her lack of concern for what constituted as morally correct.

Kakashi bumped his shoulder up against hers, a comforting gesture, she thought. It certainly helped a little.

Robin watched as Kinishi pushed away all the medics and demanded that she be allowed to care for Daiya herself, taking the girl out of the room and leaving behind her other students. Robin didn't really feel anything for the woman. Kinishi had proved herself to be jaded and snide, and wasn't very pleasant to be around at times, but also had a wicked (sometimes literally) sense of humor and cared for her students, if in a very tough-love form of affection.

The remaining two genin of the mercenary team simply stayed where they were, the boy looking worried and the blonde girl looking… well, bored and exasperated.

"The next matchup is here." Kakashi pointed to the scoreboard, drawing Robin's attention to the fact that, yes, the next fight _had_ just been announced.

**Rock Lee vs. Kankuro**

…Well.

Now Robin would need some new eardrums.

Gai really was rather loud when Lee was part of the equation.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: You see that fight? You see Neji and Daiya? I planned that for a reason: I wanted to see her get one-upped by someone like Neji. And writing it felt good.**

**Also, for everyone that's annoyed with her power base… she's older than the others, and based off of, of all things, Twilight sparklepires, with a few twists made so that she can fit into the world better. And both she and her teammates are **_**meant**_** to be overpowered… and there's a reason for that, which you'll find out during the month long interim between the prelims and the finals.**

**I hope you enjoyed reading my pitiful attempt at fight scenes.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	26. Poison on the Arena Floor!

**A/N: This is currently my least favorite story. Ergo, why it's taken me so long to write up this chapter…**

o.o.o.o.o

TenTen flexed her hands up in the stands for the genin, working out the small cramp that had come from gripping the railing so hard as she'd watched Neji's match. It really wasn't going to be good for her, the fact that her teammates were fighting one right after the other.

She winced as a loud shout reached her, but it brought a wry grin to her face anyway. Good old Lee. At least he never stopped being optimistic. Actually, he seemed to be wishing his opponent good luck, what with the thumbs up and the smile that were so characteristic of both him and Gai.

TenTen glanced nervously at Neji. The Hyuuga prodigy had a haunted look in his eyes, and while he didn't seem to be too wounded (a few cuts and scrapes, but that was nothing new to a shinobi), he was distracted and spacey.

TenTen shook her head slightly, shaking away the thoughts that continued to run rampant through her mind. She focused back on the genin below as the proctor, one Uzuki Yuugao, asked the participants to prepare for the fight.

Lee was, of course, quite exuberant in asserting the fact that yes, he was _very_ ready for this fight.

Kankuro was more… _snide_ about it, but he also acknowledged that he was ready to fight.

As soon as the proctor called the start of the match, Lee shot forward at Kankuro, leg already extending for a devastating blow to the torso.

(TenTen knew that Lee would never go for the head unless it was a life or death situation, or if he was fighting someone that he knew could block it.)

(Lee knew that a direct hit to the head from any of his attacks could result in Death.)

(And Death wasn't very youthful.)

Kankuro seemed to collapse, falling to the—

His arms latched around Lee's leg, or began to, at least. Lee was gone before the arms could close down all way, which was a good thing, considering the fact that said "arms" quickly sprouted blades that would have destroyed his leg.

Lee retreated to the wall, crouched and ready to fight at a moment's notice.

The bundle that had fallen to the floor shifted, and Kankuro stood up, the wrappings falling loosely around him. As tight as they had seemed, the wrappings were actually slack enough to allow Kankuro to move as he wished, if the situation had called for it early on.

Kankuro chuckled and rolled his head slightly. "Well, that was interesting. Guess I'll have to actually put in some effort if I want to win, ne?"

He reached up to his face, dodging a relatively slow kick from Lee, who, TenTen noted, still hadn't taken off his weights. Lee wasn't playing seriously yet, but TenTen was getting a little worried. This was the older brother of the redheaded mad boy from earlier. He definitely had something up his sleeve, and judging by the smirk on his face, it was something nasty.

"Lee! Be careful!" She couldn't help but call out to him. "He's already shown the puppets; there could be traps anywhere!"

In the time it took her to speak, Kankuro had pulled a cloth, apparently part of his strange hood, down over his face, covering it in much the same way as Kakashi. Instead of the loose, waving masks that so much of Suna seemed to favor, Kankuro had pulled a skintight fabric down over all of his face, with a thin plastic film over his eyes.

TenTen felt her heart race, _knowing_ that this wasn't a good sign. She was gladdened when she noticed Lee begin to attack Kankuro directly, dashing in and out, trying to crush the older boy's hands to render the puppetry useless. Kankuro was skilled with his chosen medium, certainly, but even he couldn't quite keep up with Lee's speed.

At least, that's what TenTen thought at first.

And yet, even as she watched, Lee was slowing down. He was stumbling, and he wasn't shouting as much, growing slightly more unintelligible with every passing minute. Kankuro wasn't attacking, only dodging and having his puppet send out a token spray of senbon or kunai every once in a while, but the folds on his mask, TenTen knew, were enough to show that he was smiling, no, _smirking_ widely as the fight wore on.

TenTen sneezed, and suddenly realized that, as focused as she had been on the match, she hadn't realized how lightheaded she was getting. She glanced fearfully up at Gai, even as her vision swam and her gears in her mind slipped and scraped; she almost got vertigo from turning and craning her head back to look at the Jounin balcony. "S-Sensei?"

Asuma had a hand over Gai and Kurenai's faces each, and Kakashi had apparently leant a mask to Robin. Asuma was the one to answer TenTen, voice quiet and grim, but loud enough to carry down. "Airborne poison, though a weak one. They'll probably send out medics to help out the contestants before the next match, so that this one doesn't affect the next ones."

TenTen weakly gestured at Asuma's hands and at Robin, wordlessly asking her question. Neji put a steadying hand on her shoulder, offering her a point of resistance as she felt herself sway. Granted, Neji wasn't doing much better than she was, but neither were any of the other genin, barring the Suna team, who were probably prepared for their brother's wide-scale attacks, that one blonde kid with the whiskers, who just looked confused, and the kid, the one on Neji's cousin's team, in the weird coat and sunglasses, who just… stood there.

Asuma shrugged. "I'm one of the only Wind elements in Konoha. I can filter the air for myself and others, even if it's a bit problematic. As for Kakashi…"

"The mask isn't just for show." The silver-haired Jounin shrugged and have a one-eyed smile, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that genin all around the room were close to collapsing. Robin, standing next to him, was positively serene beneath her borrowed mask.

"Winner, Kankuro of Suna!" Yuugao called out, even as the medics hurried in and someone opened the windows to waft the poison out. Medics filed through the room, administering aid to everyone who had suffered from the poison, even as Kankuro and the other Suna denizens pulled their masks off. Kankuro was smirking at Lee's motionless form, which a pair of medics picked up and quickly carried out, and then went back up to the rest of his team. His sister seemed to be admonishing him, but the voice didn't carry enough for TenTen to hear.

"There will now be a fifteen minute break while we take care of the effects of the last match." The Sandaime's voice carried out over the group, a little disappointed, but not altogether surprised.

TenTen didn't look up to see how Gai was reacting.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin watched the electronic scoreboard from where she stood next to Kakashi, humming a little under her breath. She leaned over slightly, resting her arms against the railing. "My, my, that was rather strange, wasn't it?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Not really. Suna's known for its puppeteers, and poison's a big thing for them. I'm a little surprised that that kid could use it effectively enough to take out Lee, but I suppose there's a first time for everything."

Robin nodded slowly, filing the information away for later use. She looked over at Gai. "Maito-san? Is there something wrong?"

Kurenai quickly blocked Robin's view of the fuming man, who was quietly talking with Asuma. "He'll be fine. He just needs to talk things out a little and get over the fact that his protégé was beaten with something he hadn't thought to cover a defense against yet."

Robin blinked at her, and then turned back to the scoreboard. "Ah."

Kakashi looked over at her, and then followed her gaze. "Hm… that looks like an interesting matchup."

**Temari vs. Akimichi Chouji**

Asuma looked over at his students, and then chuckled and shook his head. "Hold on, I have to go talk him into participating."

Robin chuckled as she watched the discussion that followed. It was like a strange mixture of Luffy and Usopp. The comparison to Luffy came solely from how easily Chouji responded to the offer of meat, whereas the comparison to Usopp stemmed from the fact that he was so reluctant to participate, but once he agreed to enter the fight, he was determined to see it through. Temari, on the other hand, immediately flew down into the arena on her fan, cocky smirk in place.

"Are both participants ready?" Yuugao asked, unperturbed by what had happened only minutes earlier.

After the two affirmatives, more normal than the ones that had been given in the match previous, the fight began. Unlike the previous fights, which had been characterized by brutality, mind games, and cunning, this fight was much more straightforward.

Chouji immediately activated his family's signature technique, becoming a large, rolling ball of doom with little spikes all over. Temari was just as skilled as her brother at evasion, a given, considering they lived with Gaara, and managed to jump out of the way of all of Chouji's attacks. She noted how he slowed down whenever he needed to change directions, stalling out at turns. At one such point, she ran up the wall, jumped off, spun over herself, and swung her fan, which was opened to the phase of the second moon. Chouji, who had barely begun to spin again, ended up blown partway across the room, bouncing slightly due to the awkward angle at which the blonde had attacked.

Several repeat incidents of this led to Yuugao calling the match in Temari's favor, who, while winded, seemed none the worse for the wear, and was even smiling widely, if such a grimace could be called a smile.

"She was smart." Kakashi commented, and then looked over to Asuma. "Sorry about Chouji, though."

Asuma shrugged and took the cigarette from his lips, holding it loosely as he watched the medics take his student out of the arena. "He did is best, so I'll still take him out for a barbecue buffet, and I'm not really all that disappointed. She was at least a few years older than him, and judging by her teammates, a lot more used to these kinds of situations than most of our genin. He'll do better next time."

Robin watched the girl, focusing on the fan. There had been war fans in Robin's own world, yes, but due to the lack of chakra, they weren't used in quite the same way. However, if the Haki that Shakky had explained to her could be used to mimic some of this… hm…

The scoreboard spun.

**Nara Shikamaru vs. Ookami Sakkaku**

Robin tilted her head and glanced over at the blonde, scarred girl in the tight-fitting black suit. The girl was expressionless as she walked down, eyes trained on her opponent, who was…

Yawning.

"I really hope he takes this seriously." Asuma blew out a plume of smoke. "It would be kind of embarrassing if not a single one of my students made it through to the finals."

"Not as embarrassing as it would be for Shikamaru to get run out of his house by his angry mother for not trying." Kakashi muttered, earning a small smile from Robin, chuckles from Asuma and Kurenai, and nothing from Gai, who was still standing at the railing, stony-faced.

"It should be interesting, if nothing else." Kurenai watched the genin on the floor. "Shikamaru's smart, and we've all agreed that he's a genius, even if he is lazy. However, the girl is an unknown, and after her teammate's display earlier, I'm almost afraid of what this one will show."

"She seems more stable." Robin pointed out. "Austere, even. I doubt that she is nearly as likely to have an episode of insanity as Miss Ketsueki was."

Kurenai shrugged. "Perhaps, but the face of a shinobi rarely shows all."

"Perhaps."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I'm so done with this… I'm not abandoning it, but I just can't write anymore this week. And for those of you that hate even a mention of the OCs (which is irritating; I want you to hate them as people, not as characters), I'm going to try not to mention them until it's relevant to the plot (which is what I've been doing so far, but you apparently don't appreciate that).**

**Come to think of it, I have to tell you something about the OCs that many of you don't seem to realize.**

**They're necessary.**

**They're a logical outcome of Robin's presence.**

**They represent a tie-in to other canon characters that I need to bring in, and would have an awkward time doing so otherwise.**

**There are **_**no**_ **canon characters in the manga that could fulfill their role. Perhaps in anime filler, but I only read the manga, so I wouldn't know.**

**So please, **_**please, PLEASE**_ **stop bugging me about them. They are there for a reason, and the reason is a good one.**

**If I respond to any of you in a way that seems unreasonably sour, I'm graduating tomorrow and my grandfather died recently. Moreover, I'm not happy with some of the accusations I've been getting recently.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	27. Electric and Apathetic

"Are both participants ready and able to fight?" Yuugao eyed the two, not finding anything wrong, which was confirmed by their words seconds later.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Shikamaru looked like he was about to nod off.

"Affirmative."

Yuugao looked at the girl rather strangely for a second, but continued along as procedure dictated. "Match start!"

Neither fighter blinked.

Onlookers could have sworn that neither one even breathed, nor blinked, nor…

Actually, scratch that. Shikamaru had just yawned. Sakkaku had still not moved, however. She seemed statuesque, in more ways than one.

"So… are you just going to stand there? Because it would be a lot less troublesome for me if you just forfeited." Shikamaru's question held a heavy tone of boredom to it.

"Negative." The blonde girl's face held no emotion.

"Are you just going to keep answering things like that?"

"…Conceivably."

"You're just messing with my head now, aren't you?" Shikamaru stared at her, eyes still half-lidded.

"Negative."

Shikamaru thought her answer over for any tricks. "Let me guess. The reason it was a negative was because there are things that you were doing _other_ than messing with my head, whereas I included 'just' messing with my head' in my sentence."

They almost saw the corner of her mouth twitch. Unfortunately, the twitch was a freak act of nature, a perversion of the natural order, and was thus quickly done away with. "Affirmative."

"Can you say anything else?"

"Yes."

The audience that they had was fairly amused by this point. It wasn't quite psychological manipulation on the level of Gaara and Ino's battle earlier, nor was it as horrifying

"…Hey, Proctor?" Shikamaru turned to Yuugao.

Asuma's voice echoed down from the stands. "If you forfeit, I'll tell your mother _and_ Ino once she wakes up!"

Shikamaru switched tracks seamlessly. "We genin of Konoha kindly thank you for your loyal and efficient work here in keeping us from killing each other."

Yuugao held back a smirk. "Such thanks are treasured to those of the Leaf. We live to protect the coming generations."

Shikamaru nodded, a somewhat forced move, and turned back to look at his opponent again.

She still hadn't moved.

"Are you just waiting for me to attack you?"

"Affirmative."

"…_Really?_" Shikamaru couldn't quite believe that. In fact, he found it hard to believe that this girl, who happened to be on the same team as the insane girl from earlier, would really allow an opponent the first move. This thought actually made him pause for a second, and then he threw himself to the ground, rolling and getting up into a crouch just as his hands came up in a very basic hand sign. "Kai!"

The image of Sakkaku wavered and disappeared, and her actual form was revealed, standing just behind the spot where Shikamaru had been just seconds earlier. There was a sword where Shikamaru's neck had been earlier, though it was with the blunt side turned in. The light sheen that Shikamaru could see spoke volumes about Sakkaku's abilities, as she was visibly running Raiton chakra, even if it was only a slight amount, down her blade.

"Impressive." Sakkaku eyed Shikamaru. "You avoided the blade."

"You weren't going for a kill." Shikamaru retorted. It wasn't a direct response, but it was something to say anyway. "Otherwise you would have had the sword turned so that the blade hit."

"Obviously." Sakkaku stood straighter and moved back, putting distance between herself and her opponent. "It would be inadvisable to earn the ire of one of Konoha's clans. While a casualty would not cause my dismissal from the exams, it would cause tension between your clan and Kinishi-sensei."

"Just your teacher? What about you?" Shikamaru stalled. She was too far away from the wall, though he could probably use the fact that she had a sword against her. Then again, he needed to check for genjutsu constantly, given what her opening move had been. He pulsed his chakra again, noting that Sakkaku had already put another illusion in place to slow down her movements in his eyes, which would make it exceedingly easy for her to get inside his guard before he realized that she was even moving.

"Your death is irrelevant to my promotion." Sakkaku 'explained.'

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. Sakkaku was not outwardly arrogant, nor emotionally volatile. She was poised, controlled, and seemingly unconcerned with the morality of her actions, so long as they brought her to her goal, to her mission. When it came to emotion, she seemed to fit the definition of a shinobi to a tee, at least outwardly.

He could probably use that, if he needed to, but he doubted that he would.

The only warning he got of the approaching kunai that brought him from thinking was the light buzz of the chakra that was coating them.

Shikamaru rolled out of the way, and cursed to himself. He'd gotten too caught up in planning and hadn't noticed Sakkaku start moving in for the kill again. Well, not for the kill, given her earlier claims, but certainly for the win.

He couldn't let a single one of her weapons touch him. If he deflected, it could only be with the sole of his shoe. If that Raiton chakra hit him, his nervous system would be hit just hard enough to make him spasm. And if wasn't in control of his actions for every millisecond of this battle, Sakkaku would have time to move in and get her sword at his neck, forcing him to forfeit.

From there, Shikamaru experienced several harrowing minutes where he couldn't find even a few spare seconds to catch his opponent in a Kagemane from how quick and how incredibly _precise_ her movements were. Sometimes it was kunai, sometimes shuriken, sometimes that infernal sword, but there was always _something_ that was about make a great big hole in his head, or even just nick him and scramble his nervous system for long enough that Sakkaku could get close enough to force him to forfeit. He couldn't even block, only spend every second he could moving and dodging. If he pulled out a kunai to block, guess what would happen? That's right. Electric shock would happen.

As the sword once more came in for his head, Shikamaru saw his chance and lashed out with one foot, putting as much power as he could into sending her across the room. Sakkaku was bigger than him, being older, but Shikamaru was still able to put enough force into his kick to render her a non-threat for several seconds.

Several seconds was all it took for Shikamaru to get through the hand signs for the Kagemane and catch Sakkaku's rising figure.

He raised his hands up, and even though his were empty, Sakkaku's were holding her sword, which meant that Shikamaru currently had a blade to her jugular.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow in her direction after several seconds had passed, several seconds where Sakkaku simply stared at him, expressionless.

Sakkaku suddenly nodded sharply and turned to the proctor. "Defeat is conceded."

After a second during which everyone untangled the strangely-worded sentence, Yuugao signaled the end of the match. "Winner, Nara Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru released the technique and wearily turned to go back up to the stands. Behind him, Sakkaku briskly strode up the stairs and moved to stand next to her remaining teammate.

Shikamaru groaned as he realized that he needed to participate in the rest of the exam now.

He should have let her hit him.

o.o.o.o.o

"That wasn't normal."

"No. It wasn't."

Robin wasn't a shinobi, but she had learned enough of them over the last ten months or so to know that genin weren't supposed to know their chakra alignments, much less use them so proficiently. Kakashi only confirmed that thought when she voiced it.

"Do you think she threw the match?" Asuma questioned once he was done congratulating Shikamaru, staring across the stands at the scarred girl.

"I don't think so." Kakashi shrugged. "Shikamaru's a genius. You said so yourself. Her mistake was that she didn't press her advantage with the genjutsu early enough, so Shikamaru got away and managed to even the playing field with a single good move."

"I don't think they're here for the exams." Robin commented, drawing the attention of the others.

"How so?" Ah, so Kakashi had noticed as well, and given they expressions on the others' faces, they had as well.

"We already determined that there is something odd about Gaara-kun, and Ketsueki latched onto him as an object of interest almost immediately after they met, if their interactions in the tower were any indicator. Kinishi-san made no attempt to speak to any of the adults involved in the exams other than Kakashi, myself, and the sensei for the Suna team, the last of which was only due to the fact that he approached her of his own volition to discuss Gaara-kun and Ketsueki. Of the two genin that have fought so far, both have shown abilities beyond that of a normal genin, despite losing their rounds." Robin paused, and Kakashi narrowed his eyes.

"There's something more, I'm guessing." It wasn't a question.

Robin nodded. "You noticed that Kinishi held Ketsueki back before the girl went to fight Neji?"

They all nodded, and Kakashi tilted his head. "You were listening in on them, weren't you?"

Robin turned her back to the arena, preventing anyone from reading her lips. "She was warning her genin against using kinjutsu. Not just _a _kinjutsu, but kinjutsu in general."

"That would mean that she probably has at least three." Kakashi concluded, eyes focused on the floor. "And given Ookami's statements earlier, it was probably more out of a desire to prevent a political scandal, rather than out of any worry for her student's ability to survive. Kinishi even mentioned that she was a medic, and particularly able at healing Daiya."

"Neji's probably lucky to be alive, then." Kurenai concluded, looking down at the genin in question. "I'm a little concerned over what kind of kinjutsu that girl could possibly have, given the abilities and mental instability that she displayed during her fight."

Gai twitched.

"You think they're just over-trained? An act of war?" Kakashi mused. "Or that they simply have different standards than the villages do?"

Robin shrugged. "I don't know. But I suggest we keep an eye on them for now."

"You already were." Kakashi pointed out.

"And I have no doubt that you were as well, Kakashi-san." Robin retorted with a smile.

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, the next fight is up."

**Uchiha Sasuke vs. Uzumaki Naruto.**

"…This isn't going to end well, is it?" Kurenai asked Kakashi rather bluntly.

"I really, really doubt it."

"Poor boys."

o.o.o.o.o

In another part of Konoha, Kabuto sat in a tree, looking down on the young girl below.

He'd just gotten out of a conference with Orochimaru, and while it hadn't gone badly, it could have gone better. The main problem was more Kin, Zaku, and Dosu's fault. They hadn't made it past the exam, which meant that Orochimaru hadn't been able to get into the area and strike up a conversation with Nico Robin. The woman was a mystery, and after the demonstration of her powers during the bout in the forest, Orochimaru had grown interested in her power.

But Kabuto couldn't do anything about that, couldn't have, and there had been no point in finishing the second part of the exam after realizing that Uchiha Sasuke's team hadn't needed his help. If they didn't need his help, there was no way for him to gain their trust, so he just gave up, cementing his position as being the possible next eternal genin. Sure, his teammates were a little annoyed at him, but that didn't really matter.

Now, this, though, this was interesting. Hanabi had been busy during Kabuto's short absence for the Exams. The fact that she was slowly, painstakingly wobbling her way through a kata on the water proved that. Sure, she dipped down and even fell a few times, but it was impressive nonetheless for a girl her age.

Kabuto decided he'd watched for long enough to gauge where her chakra control was, and dropped lightly to the ground, angling his feet to make just enough noise to alert her to his presence.

She turned, forgetting to control her chakra as she did so, and fell into the waist-high water, her head going under as she fell rear end first.

Kabuto was chuckling when she stood up again, which caused her to glare at him through her sopping bangs. He laughed even more when she came out and huffed, crossing her arms and pointedly looking away from him.

"Are you alright, Hyuuga-chibi?" He finally posed the slightly mocking question, laughing more when she glared at him. It had been a while since he'd had such a simple, innocent reason to really laugh. "Alright, alright. Are you okay, Hanabi-chan?"

She continued to glare at him. "I'm quite alright, thank you."

He reached out and ruffled her hair. "You're not going to make many friends with that kind of attitude, Hanabi-chan. You need to loosen up and stop taking things so personally."

Hanabi turned around and started walking over to the water again. Kabuto reached out and grabbed her shoulder again. "Ah, how about you tell me what you've been doing for the past few days?"

Hanabi turned, her glare softer than before, and opened her mouth to say something. Just as she was about to speak, her face cleared of anger, as though she'd only just realized something. "Wait, if you're back, then nee-chan must be back too!"

"Ah… no. I failed to complete the second task due to an incident with one of my teammates, so I got out before she did." Kabuto shrugged, apologetic. "She'll probably be home by tomorrow, though."

Hanabi sulked. "And I won't have anything to show for it."

"You're water walking already. I doubt your sister learned this until recently." Kabuto pointed out. "And I'm sure she'll be happy to see that your resolve is lasting, not just a short-term thing."

Hanabi nodded slowly. "Yes… I-I suppose you're right."

Kabuto smiled down at her. "Come on, how about I help you perfect your water walking, and then I might show you a simple technique to use, and maybe even practice on a fish, ne?"

The way Hanabi's face lit up made a cold, distant corner of Kabuto's heart warm up just the slightest bit.

The bond between a teacher and a student was always strong in a shinobi community.

o.o.o.o.o

**Betaed by: LoveDragonsForever**

**A/N: I just really wanted to leave off with that cliffhanger regarding Naruto and Sasuke. I laughed when the computer kicked out that matchup, but it's going to be interesting. I'm not quite sure who's going to win, particularly given the seals that they're both being affected by, but something's going to happen.**

**ALSO! Go look at the poll on my profile. It's important.**

**There's still a little under three weeks left, if you want to enter the contests I'm holding on DeviantArt. You can win a one-shot from me if you win one of the top three prizes, so give it a shot!**

**Also, thank you for all of the support last chapter. It was greatly appreciated.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix.**

o.o.o.o.o

**Omake the 300th reviewer. I would put the name of the person who requested it, but the PM seems to have disappeared, so I can't find who it was that requested it (tell me in a review if it was you). In any case the prompt was for a redo of the fight between Kiba and Sakura, but with Kiba gender-bent.**

**I can't say it'll be all that different, but let's see how this goes, ne?**

o.o.o.o.o

The thing Kiba was that, in any universe, he, or she, as the case may be, was a nasty little ankle-biter that grew into an abrasive genin with little to no sense of tact.

Rarely was Kiba the kind to be struck by love, and almost never the kind to begin fanboying or fangirling over the object of his or her affections.

Such was the case of the female Kiba that existed in the next world over. She wasn't head-over-heels for anyone, least of all Uchiha Sasuke.

This was a matter of pride to her, that she was one of the two girls that didn't care about the "last" Uchiha, and she took every chance she could to jab at Sakura's chances with him, and did something that Ino never did: insult Sasuke's qualities in terms of a potential boyfriend, lover, mate, whatever.

This was enough to irritate Sakura, enough to anger her. If Kiba had only insulted her, she would have been able to deal. If Kiba had only insulted Sasuke, she would have been able to deal. But to insult both?

Sakura got angry, and that meant that she was stronger and wilder, less precise in her hits.

In the end, Kiba still ended up with a broken jaw, and Sakura still ended up moving on to the finals.

Kiba used a pen and paper that had been provided to her for the rest of the second round so that she could communicate even with her broken jaw. She stared at Shino after she noticed him looking at her strangely (or as strangely as he could, given the glasses and coat), and scribbled on the paper.

_What's up with you, dude?_

Shino just turned away to face the arena.

Was that a blush on his cheeks?

o.o.o.o.o

**Yes, I teased with Shino x fem!Kiba. I have no regrets. They would make for a cute couple.**


	28. Anticlimactic

**A/N: It took me a while to decide on how to play Naruto and Sasuke's fight, especially since the drop in reviews for the last chapter didn't give me much inspiration to work with (where did you guys think I got my motivation and inspiration?), but then I remembered a little event from the Forest of Death that more or less decided the issue for me. There were also issues regarding character development that one reviewer pointed out which also aided me in figuring out the best way to keep the ball rolling on that end.**

**By the way, there are several references to a particular webcomic that I enjoy during TenTen's little moment. If you can guess which comic it is, you get a cookie.**

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto and Sasuke were frozen, staring at the screen in front of them. Naruto had a death grip on the railing, and Sasuke's right eye was twitching dangerously.

Then Sakura grabbed both of them, Karin right behind her, and dragged them both into a small circle.

She looked both of them in the eye, and then her breath whooshed out in a heavy sigh as she steeled herself for what she knew was necessary to say. "One of you has to forfeit."

"What?!" Naruto shouted, and then yelped as Sasuke elbowed him in the ribs.

Sasuke glared at Sakura, causing her to cringe slightly, though she held strong. "Explain, now."

"I can do that." Karin spoke softly, hesitantly, but she continued anyway when the three members of Team Seven turned their gazes on her. "You both got seals that mess with your chakra in the Forest, right? And… and I wouldn't have suggested this in any other case, but you're fighting each other, so you probably won't mind forfeiting as much. The thing is…" She gulped, but continued. "Naruto's seal is messing with his control, but since he doesn't really use any techniques that need a lot of precision, it's not that big of a deal for now. Since you mostly just use your Kage Bunshin, you'll probably just get a few more or less, since the number is based off of the amount of chakra you put in, right?" Karin looked at Naruto, biting her lip.

"I, uh, I guess?" Naruto shrugged, rubbing the back of his head. "I think so, anyway."

Karin nodded, continuing. "But Sasuke-kun… if you use too much chakra now, it could really hurt your system. I can tell what it's doing to your chakra, and… listen, you really shouldn't fight, especially if you accidentally trigger it, because that might cause Naruto or… or the other Jinchuuriki to lose control, because the chakra in that seal is _really_ nasty, and, and…" She trailed off, looking hopefully at both boys with wide red eyes, tearing up behind her glasses.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at one another, ignoring Yuugao's calls to get down into the arena as soon as possible. Sakura looked between them and swallowed her nervousness, knowing that what she was about to do was going against everything she'd done for the past few years, but… "Sasuke-kun, I think you should be the one to forfeit."

Naruto's jaw dropped, a slight blush coming onto his cheeks. "S-Sakura-chan?"

Sakura glanced between the two of them, and then kept going with her explanation. "It doesn't really matter who chooses to forfeit in terms of your… issues, so long as someone does, but later on, there's a big tournament held to choose who will become chunin; there always is. And… Naruto, you don't have a good reputation in the village, and you told us as much. Most of the village is going to be at the exams, and it could be your chance to prove yourself to the village. Sasuke-kun doesn't need to prove anything; he's already respected by most of the civilian population, and the shinobi don't mind him, but…" She trailed off, trying to find the words to explain herself further.

"I'll do it."

All three heads turned to Sasuke. He frowned and sighed, elaborating so that they didn't proclaim him a foreign spy impersonating himself. "You're right. I don't need to prove anything to anyone but myself. I don't need a huge tournament to prove myself when I can get to most of my competitors outside of it, and just challenge them to a spar or two. The dobe needs to prove that he's not the demon to most of the village, and this is the best chance for it. So I'll do it."

"Teme, you'd do that?"

"Didn't I just say I would?" Sasuke snorted, and then walked over to the railing as Yuugao called for them to get down there, _now_, or she would disqualify both of them.

"I forfeit."

There was collective silence in the room for several seconds, and then the collective exclamations of surprise.

Except one, which wasn't much of an exclamation, nor very surprised.

"Troublesome."

o.o.o.o.o

"Should I assume that you were listening in on them and can explain what happened to make Sasuke agree to something like this, given his personality?" Kakashi leaned forward against the railing, head turned slightly to look at Robin."

"I wouldn't suggest ever assuming anything. It's not very polite, after all." Robin smiled at him. "But yes, I was tracking the conversation."

"And?" Kakashi prompted.

Robin tilted her head, watching her friend's team through the corner of her eye. "Karin and Sakura convinced them that it would be better for both if one of them forfeited, and convinced Sasuke that Naruto needed to fight and prove himself in front of the village more than he did."

Kakashi mulled it over. "So… you're saying that Sasuke forfeited as a selfless act of kindness for a teammate?"

Robin tilted her head to the side. "Not completely selfless, but he did forfeit for Naruto's sake."

Kakashi eye-smiled at Robin and put an arm around her shoulders. "You'll help me take the team out for their favorite foods later, right? I want to show them how proud I am."

Robin chuckled. "I suppose. We'll bring Karin-chan along as well."

"We should probably contact her sensei," Kakashi pondered. "Actually, we should have done that as soon as we found out what happened."

Robin patted his shoulder. "We'll do that as soon as we get out of the Forest."

"Oh!" Gai finally came out of his momentary depression, pointing at the board.

**Aburame Shino vs. TenTen**

Robin felt a smile grow slowly on her face, the one that she wore when she had information that no one else did. In this case, she was _not_ the only one that knew, but as the rest were the members of Team Gai, and Team Gai alone, she was fairly certain that most of the room would be surprised soon.

Though Neji seemed rather on edge… perhaps TenTen had taken her special training a little too far?

"Robin…" Kakashi seemed a little worried that he didn't know what she was smiling about, particularly as it involved one of Gai's students. Considering the fact that Neji, the other sane student, seemed to be calmly panicking, and Gai himself was grinning, and TenTen seemed overly giddy, and Robin knew what was going on, and oh kami, this was going to end badly for someone, probably Kakashi, wasn't it?

"Yes, Kakashi-san?" Robin turned to him with the sweetest smile to ever exist.

Kakashi felt a tiny part of his soul die as the rest wept in terror of the sight of the woman before him.

"Ano… nothing."

The two genin jumped down to the arena floor.

o.o.o.o.o

TenTen and Shino were a match-up that had most of the room relieved. Like Kiba and Sakura, they were both Konoha shinobi that weren't likely to kill or seriously injure one another. They were both good enough to be a little flashy, and whichever one ended up in the finals was bound to put on a good show, but there wasn't the nerve-wracking anxiety that had been caused by some of the other matches.

The fight started out simply enough, almost boring as the two made to test one another's defenses. As fast as Shino's bugs may have been, TenTen was faster, a testament to her survival under Gai's harsh training methods. As good as TenTen's aim and power may have been, Shino was deceptive enough to always have a bug clone ready to take the hit, a testament to his skill with his clan's techniques.

Once both of them had tested the other fully, TenTen decided to get creative, and the audience finally realized just what had been the reason behind the reactions of Robin, Gai, and Neji… sort of.

Shino stared at the strange object in TenTen's hand. "What is that?"

TenTen grinned. "It's called a pistol."

"It appears to be a strangely shaped piece of plumbing." Shino pointed out, "Though by the way you are holding it, I assume it is more than a simple club?"

TenTen stared at him, mildly horrified, and turned to the side, cradling the weapon to her chest. "How dare you! It's more than just a pipe!"

Up in the stands, Kankuro leaned over and whispered to his sister, "It looks like a metal banana."

Temari slapped him upside the head.

Shino stood silently, appraising TenTen and trying to determine the possible threat of her new weapon.

Of course, then she pointed it at him and fired.

Shino, as mentioned before, always had a clone ready to switch out with, and it was a clone that had been standing in place to catch TenTen's attention, not Shino himself. Nonetheless, the clone began to dodge as soon as TenTen's arm began to move, its momentum carrying it just out of the path of the bullet (and if the clone's shoulder got clipped, well, no one _really_ noticed). What did catch the attention of most of the room was the explosion of rocky shards that blasted out from the wall upon the impact of a projectile that few of them could even track.

TenTen's eyes narrowed, and she slipped the pistol into a holster that had been attached to her hip for days now, empty and awaiting a chance to fulfill its purpose. She brought her hands up into a seal in front of her, pulsing her chakra and muttering the normal "Kai!" that all shinobi, even the ones that were only in training, learned early on enough to never be caught too unawares.

From that point on, it was a game of cat and mouse, though no one was sure just which was which, or whether it was a game of cat and cat or mouse and mouse. TenTen's shots were accurate, but Shino knew to be on his guard against TenTen's strange, otherworldly weapon, and, though she did catch him once in the abdomen, she caught clones more often than not. Shino did, at one point, attempt to clog the barrel, but it only lead to the death of the bugs he sent to perform the mission, as the barrel was strong, and well-used to the explosive power that it held so often.

At least… that's how it was until TenTen ran out of bullets. When she shot, the empty clicking echoing around the arena rather than the bangs from earlier, Shino knew to take his chance. TenTen had a rudimentary shunshin to get out of the way, but as she released sprays of kunai and senbon to cover her as she reloaded, Shino managed to slip bugs past her guard, quick enough in his movements that the kikkaichu began to cover TenTen, immobilizing her legs and draining her chakra, crawling up and up as Shino came closer with a kunai to hold it to TenTen's neck and cause the match to be—

TenTen swung up her arm, aiming point-blank at Shino's forehead, only inches away.

The two stared at one another, judging the situation and one another.

Shino gestured at TenTen's legs. "They've been trying to drain your chakra for much of the fight. As much as you have been moving during this fight, particularly during the beginning, you cannot be far from exhaustion. Your chakra will be fully drained within the minute."

"I'm a trigger-pull away from sending a small ball of metal careening through your head at the speed of sound. I think I have the upper hand." TenTen grinned, even as she felt herself draining. "In a real fight to the death, I'm the one that would be winning. It may not be a kunai to the neck, but with everything that you've seen, having this pointed at your brain is just as effective."

Yuugao took that time to step in. "Winner, TenTen."

Shino frowned behind his collar, even as he ordered his bugs to withdraw. He had not forfeited, so the match should not have been called. The only times that was allowable was when the opponent was dead, unconscious, or was refusing to cooperate when they were clearly in a situation that they would not be able to escape. Shino was quite certain that, had he and TenTen truly been in such a situation, his bugs could have distracted her, either by biting her or crushing her legs, long enough for him to get in close and have the kunai to her neck.

However, had she fired as soon as she had gotten the pistol into position…

Perhaps the proctor had not been so hasty in her decision.

He needed to think on this.

o.o.o.o.o

"Yosh!" Gai punched the air. "Two of my most youthful students have proceeded to the finals!"

"But not the most youthful one." Kakashi pointed out. Gai turned to look at him, nearly pouting.

"My Eternal Rival, do not say such harsh and unyouthful words!"

Robin chuckled. "Ah, you should be glad that he survived, ne? If that poison had been fatal, imagine what could have happened. He could have coughed up blood, or been asphyxiated, or simply died without a visible reason. I used the last one often enough myself a few years ago."

"…Robin-san, you're not helping." Despite his words, Kakashi smiled at her, uneasy as it may have been.

Asuma coughed, drawing the attention of the three. "Last match is up."

**Hyuuga Hinata vs. Yagira Torame**

Kurenai paled as the other Jounin winced. Robin stopped smiling, though she did not quite frown.

"Oh my. I hope he isn't as rude as his teammates."

o.o.o.o.o

Kabuto looked over the page that he had just written out, ready to be rolled up and sent to Sasori. The role of a double agent, no, a triple agent, was a difficult one to keep up, particularly when only one of the factions was aware that he was gathering information from all three sources, and distributing it as he wished to, not necessarily as he was told.

However, Kabuto did what he was supposed to (for Orochimaru, at least), and did it well. He kept up the charade almost perfectly, after all. Sure, he had almost incurred Sasori's wrath several weeks ago when he had admitted that he didn't have a high chance of meeting the enigma that was Nico Robin and gathering the information that would allow Sasori to capture her and successfully turn her into a puppet, but the incident had passed without pain on Kabuto's part, though Sasori had grumbled, long enough to make that strange blonde partner of his start complaining, that he was going to have to deal with someone else's anger, a man named Kakuzu, at the bribes and payments he'd have to make to get the information from another source.

However, another source didn't really matter to Kabuto, so long as it didn't interfere with him. He had even managed to find a path to Robin through Hanabi, however roundabout it may have been, and was slowly going to pick his way along to get the information, though it would not be going to Sasori, but to Orochimaru.

Little Hanabi was a sweet girl, but she needed to learn to recognize when someone was using her for their own gain.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I think I'll leave it at that, ne? And some predictions for this last fight would be nice from you guys. I want to see what you think will happen, how I'll play it out. I doubt Torame's first actions are going to be anything you expect, though. He's a little… off.**

**Yes, I'm milking Kabuto's position in this story for all it's worth. Don't hate me when the **_**point**_** of what I'm doing with him (or points, since there are at least two that aren't present in canon) becomes clear. Because you will. You will hate me a **_**lot**_**. You've probably just managed to figure out the (rather blatant) hint in that last scene, and are already hating me for it.**

**A reminder: there is a contest that I'm holding on DeviantArt, and you can win a one-shot from me if you do well enough.**

**Another reminder: you can choose which story I work on after I finish "Gender Confusion," and while most of them are Naruto-based, there **_**is**_** one for the One Piece fans, so go check it out and vote, ne? Personally, my favorites are "It's a Twin Thing," "Guardians of Killers," and "Civility," but the results may not follow along with that, so… we'll see how that goes.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	29. Finally Done With the Prelims

**A/N: Wow, nobody guessed it.**

**The webcomic in question was "True Magic." Only one character has a pistol, and it is referred to as a banana and a strange piece of plumbing in the Alt Text, and he is rather insulted when someone mistakes it for a club. If you're looking for a reasonably short webcomic that doesn't take itself too seriously, I'd suggest reading it. And don't forget to hover your mouse over each page (no clicking), to see the hidden joke (aka, the Alt Text).**

**By the way, I've had this first scene planned for months. I've also had the last scene planned for several months.**

o.o.o.o.o

Konohamaru swung his legs back and forth while he sat on a chair in the Hokage's office. His grandfather should have been here _hours_ ago.

Konohamaru was tired and hungry. The chunin at the door were chunin for a reason, and they kept him from leaving easily. There was only one ANBU in the room, and he was posted to make sure that nothing was stolen.

Most of the ANBU on duty knew that Konohamaru had a tendency to dig through one particular drawer of Hiruzen's, open a secret bottom, and take out sweets. After the first several times, they had simply stopped caring to stop him, since the Hokage himself seemed to find it more amusing than anything else.

Unfortunately, the drawer that held the secret bottom was just above the one that held… something else.

Konohamaru, as bored, as hyper, as easily distracted as he was at the moment, didn't realize that he was opening the wrong drawer. He did notice once the false bottom didn't fall out, and then he noticed that this was one of those drawers that couldn't be opened other than by his grandpa or immediate family members. There was something inside, a box without a lock.

Well… if the box wasn't locked, then it probably wasn't that important, right? And it looked like the kind of box that would break pretty easily, since it was only made of wood, and it was right next to the candy drawer, so maybe it had something to do with the candy, or…

Konohamaru grabbed the box and opened it, not noticing the seal that activated for a second, testing his blood to see if he was supposed to have access.

It really was a pity that the Hokage had neglected to inform the ANBU of the importance of what the box contained. The secret was kept to a few people, just the ones that were involved in its original discovery.

"Whoa!" This was awesome! The fruit was really weird and wrinkly, but it was really bright pink. And there were swirls on it!

Maybe… maybe it was made of marzipan, like Asuma-oji's girlfriend sometimes made. Or that weird sugary clay-like stuff that he saw on cakes sometimes. Or something like that. It was pretty cool, anyway, and if he could get it that easily, then it couldn't be some big important thing, right? It was just in a box in a drawer, right next to the candy.

Konohamaru ate the Mera-Mera no Mi.

"Eurgh! Nasty!" The fruit tasted terrible!

He coughed and rubbed at his tongue, not feeling the room begin to feel uncomfortably hot, though it appeared that the ANBU did, as he or she was starting to try to find the reason behind the change in the atmosphere.

Konohamaru screamed in terror as one of his arms burst into flames.

He wasn't hurt in the least.

o.o.o.o.o

Hinata walked down to the floor the normal way, even if she was extremely nervous.

Torame was pushed over the railing and into the arena by his remaining teammate.

The boy in question was rubbing his head and staring piteously up at the emotionless blonde girl when Hinata got down to the actual arena, and didn't seem to notice her until he'd already stood up and looked around the fighting ring.

"No."

Yuugao turned to look at the tall boy, slightly confused. Hinata wasn't imposing, and if they boy had wanted to back out of the preliminaries, he'd had his chance. There wasn't a reason for him to refuse to fight, right?

"A-ano…" Hinata was poking her fingers together, but her gaze held on Torame. "What are you saying?"

He looked torn. "You—I don't—I can't… Urgh, you're too cute for me to fight!"

There was silence, and Torame didn't seem to realize how oddly everyone was staring at him, particularly the glares coming from Team 8 and Neji. He continued to ramble without a pause. "I mean, you're small, and you look shy and innocent, and fighting you would be like, like punching a kitten. Or kicking a puppy. And not the ninja puppy that was here in that one fight, but a newborn puppy that can't really see or hear anything yet, and then I'd just feel really guilty and—"

"Enough." Yuugao held up a hand to stop him. By this point, the varying glares had disappeared and turned simply incredulous. "Do you forfeit?"

"Of course not! Kinishi-sensei would go ballistic if we all failed." Torame winced. "I mean, I guess I'll fight, but I won't be happy about it, and—"

He quieted down when Yuugao sent him a look.

Hinata was, by this point, mortified.

It took her a second to agree when Yuugao asked if they were ready to fight, the question being the first thing to jolt her out of her shock. "Ah, yes!"

"…Yeah…" Torame seemed to be rather unhappy, but he took a ready stance nonetheless, almost pouting.

Upon starting the battle, Hinata realized that she had a major problem.

While in most cases, she would have been able to come closer and begin using the Jyuuken rather easily, most Hyuuga were at a distinct disadvantage against long-range opponents. Unless one happened to have mastered the Kaiten or a similar defensive technique, Jyuuken was next to useless against an opponent that insisted on staying as far away as possible.

Unfortunately for Hinata, Torame was very good at dodging, which seemed to be a common element to his team, and so avoided her initial attacks well enough to get out of range after only a minute or two. Hinata knew not to limit herself to Jyuuken in a situation like this, no matter how much disapproval she would get for it, and immediately began to throw kunai and shuriken at Torame. Hinata had good aim, but her throw wasn't as strong or as fast as it could have been, and she wasn't the kind that was able to rely on a projectile weapon completely, the way that TenTen was.

"Could you please just forfeit? I don't want to hurt you." Torame asked in the middle of doing a strange sort of pirouette while wall-walking to avoid a brace of shuriken.

Hinata shook her head, keeping her Byakugan active as she had the whole fight, and tried to get close enough to attack. If she failed to reach the final exam, the clan would see it as just another reason to view her as a disappointment.

"I see…"

She had to win this. She had to get to the finals. She had to—

Dodge!

Torame had finally gone on the offensive. He didn't use the names for his techniques, didn't say a word, actually. His face was remorseful, though Hinata couldn't tell how sincere he was. And his techniques were exactly what Hinata had pegged him for: long range.

Torame spat thin streams of fire, one by one, in a wide arc, right through the area where Hinata's waist would have been had she not ducked and rolled out of the way.

Hinata was then forced to jump to avoid globules of water the size of her head, doing some rather interesting acrobatics to dodge them completely.

Then the streams of fire came again, followed by a much wider sweep of water that Hinata barely managed to avoid. After that came a small wall of ashes, ones that would have blinded anyone without a Byakugan.

Hinata turned around, blocking a kunai that had come straight for her head. She jumped over another water technique, and jumped away from a puddle that had been created, seeing the chakra that had begun to collect before it formed a clone.

The water clone attacked her head on, not quite as good at dodging as Torame himself, which meant that Hinata easily managed to hit the correct point to dispel the technique within thirty seconds.

Torame once again sent fire her way, and followed along directly behind, sweeping her legs out from below her as she bent back to avoid the fireball. He had a knee on her chest and a kunai to her throat in less than a second after that.

"Winner, Yagira Torame." Yuugao announced.

Torame stepped back and held out a hand to Hinata, helping her up. "Sorry about that, but I don't want to irritate Kinishi-sensei."

Hinata nodded, not trusting herself to say anything, and shook his hand before going back up to her team.

o.o.o.o.o

Kurenai sighed, burying her head in her hands. "Not a single one."

Asuma patted her back sympathetically. "Well, there's always next year. It's not like any of those defeats were embarrassing, so no one will think badly of you. That they made it this far is saying enough, since this is only your first year teaching."

"Kakashi and Gai each had two students make it, and you had Shikamaru. And I don't know _how_ Hinata's father is going to react to the fact that she didn't make it into the final round, especially since Neji did. I don't know… maybe I can take the blame. Since none of the team made it, he can say that it was my fault so that Hinata doesn't have to deal with the elders again."

"It'll be fine, Kurenai." Asuma put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hiashi will understand."

"That's right." Robin smiled at them, and they were once more hit with the feeling that she was referencing information that they didn't know, not yet.

Kurenai nodded, ignoring the strange feeling she got from Robin, and then pointed to the floor, where the numbers had already been chosen and the roster was up on the electronic board.

_**Sabaku no Gaara vs. Hyuuga Neji**_

Kakashi tried to remind himself that there would be dozens of jounin and even a kage, possibly two, and maybe Jiraiya, in attendance. Neji wasn't going to die.

The half-smile on Robin's face was starting to disturb him a little.

_**Sabaku no Kankuro vs. Sabaku no Temari**_

Oh, joy, siblings. That was bound to be interesting.

_**Haruno Sakura vs. Uzumaki Naruto**_

Seriously? The teammates were together _again?_ Was someone trying to mess up his life? It was going so well, too…

_**Yagira Torame vs. TenTen**_

That would probably be one of the tamer fights, where neither would be trying to kill one another or dealing with team loyalties.

_**Alternate/Pass: Nara Shikamaru**_

Even when he wasn't in control of the situation, Shikamaru still got put in the position where he could be the laziest shinobi possible.

Well, this Chunin Exam was going to be memorable.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto was slightly annoyed. Sasuke had been dragged off by some old guy with spiky white hair that apparently wrote Kakashi-sensei's stupid books, after the guy had looked at his seal and fixed stuff. Karin had been sent to talk with her teacher, and was probably still crying. Sakura-chan had left to go talk to her parents, and Naruto was left alone with Robin.

Now, being alone with Robin wasn't all that bad of a thing. Robin was nice, and she sometimes acted like a fun big sister or even a mom. She was a little creepy sometimes, but that wasn't a big deal, and she usually only said that kind of stuff around Kakashi-sensei anyway, 'cause he found it funny.

But Robin had said something about Orochimaru, and now they were walking through the hospital, and she _wouldn't tell him what happened._ It was… it made him angry.

Naruto was a little too annoyed to remember the word "infuriating."

Robin opened a door and gestured for Naruto to go in. What he saw was… not exactly what he was expecting.

"Haku? What happened to your arm?!"

It was really a pity, Robin thought, that she had to be pulled away in the middle of Haku and Naruto's rather touching conversation.

Just what could Sarutobi want with her?

o.o.o.o.o

Gaara walked along the hallways, mostly out of the strange mental state that the blond Yamanaka girl had put him in.

He was in the hospital, unfortunately enough, and Temari and Kankuro were with him, ostensibly to keep him out of trouble and make sure he didn't suddenly suffer any adverse side effects of what had happened to him during the fight.

Gaara had noticed Daiya's chakra earlier, and gone to see her out of curiosity, but had been turned away at the door rather frostily by her sensei. He'd sensed the boy on the team there as well, but the scarred girl was conspicuously absent.

He resorted to walking through the hospital, to keep Mother satisfied with the sensation of so many people suffering and struggling and succumbing to their illnesses, even if he couldn't give her any blood… yet.

Gaara paused near the door of one room, feeling something familiar from inside. He went to the small window in the doorway and looked in on one Yamanaka Ino.

He strode in without hesitation, and sat at a chair at the foot of her bed.

When she woke… that was when he would ask her just what she had done to him.

o.o.o.o.o

Hiruzen burst into the room that currently held his grandson, the ANBU by the door jumping out of the way.

The first ANBU, the one that had been in the room with Konohamaru, had coaxed him down to the T&I chambers, away from anything flammable, and filled with rooms that could be fully sealed off in case Konohamaru became more dangerous and the fires had to be contained.

"Grandpa!" Konohamaru launched himself into his grandfather's arms, sobbing. "I'm sorry, I thought it was candy! I didn't—I couldn't—I mean…"

"Sh…" Hiruzen rubbed Konohamaru's back soothingly. Konohamaru was no longer bursting into flames every seconds, having gained enough control to stay solid, slippery as the control was. However, he was uncomfortably warm nonetheless. "It's alright, Konohamaru. You're safe now."

Robin arrived several minutes later, escorted by a rather nonplussed Mitarashi Anko, who had already recovered from the fight with Orochimaru. Robin was let into the room silently, and the door was closed behind her, preventing any sound from entering or leaving.

"Oh my." Robin put a hand to her mouth. "Did he eat the Mera Mera no Mi?"

Hiruzen nodded. "Robin, do you know how to train someone that has eaten one of these… Logia?"

Robin shook her head. "I can suggest several ideas, but my power is a Paramecia. I have never had to look for such training before. All of the Logia users that I have met in my time were already trained, and most of them taught themselves."

"Do you know anyone that could?" Hiruzen's eyes were fixed on Robin's. He would know if she lied.

Robin considered it for several seconds. When she finally spoke, it seemed to be a non sequitor. "We have confirmed that Gaara-kun is a Jinchuuriki, correct?"

The Hokage shook his head, playing along for the moment. "No, but it seems likely, given what that sensor girl that Naruto found told us, and historic records regarding the powers that the Shukaku most often bestows upon its jailers."

Robin nodded. "Then I believe I may be able to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak."

Konohamaru was still sniffling into his grandfather's chest.

"I believe that, if I call in a favor that my captain has, then I may be able to bring an old… friend in." Robin smiled at Sarutobi, all charm. "He is the holder of the Suna Suna no Mi, and seeing as Luffy broke him out of Impel Down… well, I may be able to convince him to come, if he is close enough to arrive in less than a few weeks."

A Logia. A _Sand_ Logia, one that Robin had implied may be powerful enough to mitigate the Shukaku Jinchuuriki and help Konohamaru learn to control his newfound powers as well. The Shukaku factor meant that this 'favor' would likely be worth the pay of somewhere in the range of a high B-rank or low A-rank mission.

"Nico Robin, I hereby grant you permission to do everything in your power to get this man here."

Robin nodded, the smile on her face chilling. "Oh, it will be interesting to see Crocodile again. I wonder if he would be angry if I referred to him as Mr. 0 again…"

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Yes, I've been planning on this for months. Ever since I brought in the Mera Mera no Mi, I've been planning on having Konohamaru be the one to eat it, and on Robin suggesting Crocodile.**

**There were a few things that I wanted to include here, but I ran out of time. So you'll get to see it in the next chapter.**

**Well, same shtick as always: review, vote in the poll, enter the contest.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	30. I Spy With my Little Eye

Shakky smiled around her cigarette as she cleaned a glass, amused by the yells of the men that had come in, taken one look at Robin, and begun to panic upon seeing the torso of a woman growing out of the countertop.

Robin ignored the fleeing pirates, still listening to the ringing on the other end of the line.

The snail changed, gaining a scar and a rather arrogant look, staring up at Robin. From the receiver, Crocodile spoke slowly. "Hello?"

"Hello… Mr. 0." Robin's voice walked a strange line between strange respect and mocking amusement, and the small smile on her face agreed with her tone as well.

The Den-Den Mushi stared up at her, seemingly disinterested, and Crocodile's voice came through, low and somewhat unhappy. "Do you expect me to call you Ms. All Sunday once again?"

Robin chuckled, a soft noise. "No. I simply wished to harken back to… different days."

"What do you want, Nico?" Crocodile asked, the snail's eyes narrowing at Robin.

"I have a… proposition." Robin spun a pen through her fingers as she spoke, continuing to smile down at the Den-Den Mushi. "I believe that you owe a favor to my captain for breaking you out of Impel Down, correct?"

"That debt was paid." Crocodile retaliated. "I aided in his escape and subsequent attack on Marineford as much as he aided mine."

"Then perhaps the nature of the situation that I have in mind will interest you." Robin continued without missing a beat. "A young boy that I know, the grandson of an ally that I have made, recently ate the Mera Mera no Mi, and you are as skilled a Logia as I know… on a somewhat non-confrontational basis, at least."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, _Ms. All Sunday_." Crocodile's tone just edged on mockery. "And I see nothing interesting about this situation."

"The other part is much likelier to interest you, I believe." Robin chuckled again. "There is another boy, several years older than the first, that has a literal demon sealed into him. Not a Devil Fruit… a true demon."

"Intriguing as that may be," Crocodile drawled, the snail that represented him yawning mid-sentence, "I don't see why that should give me any reason to come to aid the… _successor_ to Fire Fist Ace."

"The demon grants him the ability to control sand in a manner much like your own." Robin relished in the suddenly alert expression on the snail's face, though she did not show it.

"…And you trust me to be around this boy?"

"He is unstable. There is going to be an… event of sorts, I suppose, that will occur in several weeks' time. The ally that I mentioned is concerned that the sand boy may attempt to kill the civilians." Robin smiled, though there was little humor to it. "And while I know that you do not much care for the lives of strangers, I do believe that meeting such boys may be worth the trip."

There was silence from the other end, and then Crocodile began to laugh, a grating, strange laugh that Robin had heard many times.

"I'll take you up on your offer, but I'm bringing Daz Bonez with me, or as you knew him…"

"Mr. 1." Robin finished, and her smile curved across her face once more. "How soon can you reach Sabaody?"

"Two and a half weeks." Crocodile answered after some deliberation. "We are currently on the Red Line."

"I see. I shall meet you then." Robin hesitated slightly, but there was not much of a hitch in her words as she continued. "I am going to show you a whole new world, Mr. 0." She laughed, though not to any great length.

"A world far beyond any you have dreamed of. A world beyond even the Grand Line's second half."

"The world of shinobi awaits you, Crocodile."

o.o.o.o.o

Deidara drummed his fingers against the table, bored. He had been waiting in this café for half an hour already, and Sasori's informant _still_ hadn't arrived. The blonde man (or boy, in the eyes of many) was even wearing gloves and had his hair done differently, if only slightly, to avoid being recognized too easily. He wanted this situation to be _over_ already.

Deidara honestly didn't see why Sasori couldn't have come and gotten the information himself, either. The puppet master had rattled off some excuse about not being as inconspicuous, and Deidara had just stopped listening halfway through and started trying to see if he could mold some clay into a butterfly larger than his hand and still capable of gliding without the aid of chakra.

Akatsuki's mad bomber glanced at the door as the bell chimed, raising an eyebrow at the girl that made her way in. Skin-tight black body-suit, nicely angled face, good proportions, and _fantastic_ hair. Too bad about the scars on her face, though, he thought. He might've tried to actually get a little action if they hadn't put him off so much.

But now wasn't the time to mull over the girl, seeing as she was heading right his way. Her features had been blank of emotion when she'd entered, but were now being molded into a look halfway between adoring and apologetic. Deidara sighed mentally and smirked back, trying to level out condescension and amusement in just the right way to keep the act up.

"Sorry about being late, Daisuke-kun." The girl tucked a stray hair, just one, behind her ear, an embarrassed blush rising to her cheeks. It was probably fake, seeing as most things about infiltrator nin were. "Things ran on a little longer than expected."

"Not a problem." Deidara had to focus on not letting his personal speech impediment slip through, but he did it anyway. He swirled the tea in his cup around a little, the very picture of arrogance, he hoped. "Though I was getting a little bored without your pretty face around."

"D-Daisuke-kun!" The blush grew in intensity, and the girl turned her head to the side.

Deidara chuckled, though behind his smiling face, he was seething in annoyance at the pseudonym he was using.

"Ano…" The informant fumbled around in her bag, trying to find something. She probably could have pulled it out without looking (or, at least, he hoped she could, because a jounin-level spy was _not_ supposed to be that clumsy), but it kept with her flustered demeanor. "I got something for you from Konoha!"

She thrust a box in his direction, eyes squeezed shut. Deidara blinked in false surprise and took it slowly, then let a teasing grin dance over his features. "Aw, do I get a present now!"

"D-don't open while I'm here!" She bit out, and then looked down, curling in on herself. "It's kind of embarrassing…"

Bingo. The information scroll was in the box, then. Deidara hoped that it was enough to satisfy Sasori, given that _he_ was the one that would have to suffer through the puppet man's irritated tirades if the scroll only held knowledge that they already had. Then again, a four-jounin spy squad, young as they were (though the three younger members were all his age, or thereabouts… he chose to ignore that fact), should have been able to scrounge together enough to keep Sasori happy, right?

"Thanks…" Deidara bit his lip, then smiled charmingly. He really should have added her name at the end, but he couldn't exactly _remember_ it, so…

"It's… it's nothing." The girl looked to the side again, the blush finally fading. Deidara hoped she was finding the situation as uncomfortable and as annoying as he was. Her expression at the beginning had implied that she did, but he couldn't really be sure.

The 'date' went ahead smoothly after that, ordering tea and some small meals, Deidara offering to pay like the gracious, but secret, boyfriend that he was pretending to be, and skillfully avoiding the need to say the girl's name again. He only barely remembered it by the end, when they were hugging (eurgh) in front of the small restaurant in the small town, and waving goodbye.

"I'll see you soon, Daisuke-kun!" She was still keeping up the cheery act, but he had a feeling that it would be gone within seconds, once they turned their backs on one another.

"Goodbye!" And then almost as an afterthought, as the memory of her name hit him like a freight train, he added. "Same to you, Sakkaku-chan!"

Now, time to get the information to Sasori…

o.o.o.o.o

Ino woke up with a start. It was unusual, for her, seeing as she was normally the kind of girl that woke up slowly, going from dead asleep to drowsy to awake over the course of an hour or so, when given the chance. And at the moment, there was no alarm, no bustling parent, and no crisis. Judging by the white she saw as soon as she opened her eyes, she was even in a hospital, which meant that she should be asleep and _staying_ asleep, not… not…

The memories of her fight came trickling back into her head, along with the chakra that was only a few feet away, if her senses were right. No wonder she was awake so quickly. Her body had probably recognized the danger and woken her up as soon as she was in a condition fit to fight.

Ino flipped over and sat up in her bed, ignoring the stiff muscles in her neck and back, and stared in horror at the redheaded boy sitting in a chair against the wall, only a foot or two from the metal frame of the hospital bed.

"What are you doing here?" The trembling, accusatory, loud, high-pitched words flew from Ino's mouth before she could take them back in.

Gaara blinked at her, and his voice was soft, slow, even, and withheld emotion when he spoke, in direct contrast to Ino.

"She is gone. Or rather, she is there, but she does not speak to me, not as she used to. Only once or twice do I hear her, muffled screams that barely reach me." His eyes fixed on Ino, narrowing in what could have been suspicion, or anger, or even playfulness, though Ino _seriously_ doubted the last one.

"What did you do to Mother?"

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: This would have been up a while ago, but… stuff happened. This chapter was written mostly between 12:30 and 2:15 AM, so forgive any errors or shoddy writing. I've had some writer's block too, so…**

**Well, at least I finally explained what's going on with a few things, right?**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	31. I Will Survive

**A/N: How is it that you guys always seem to enjoy the filler scenes most?**

o.o.o.o.o

Ino stared at Gaara, not a little confused. "What?"

Gaara's reaction wasn't much, but there was the slightest of twitches that showed his irritation. "I have listened to her since I was born. Now, her voice is muffled, if it is present at all. What did you do to her?"

"I don't know!" The words flew from Ino's mouth without prompting. At Gaara's steadily increasing look of irritation, she stumbled over her words in an attempt to elaborate, or at least stall a while. "I just acted on instinct! I was inside your head, and there were opposing pressures, and there were things going on that didn't fit in with any of my training, and it just hurt, there was pain coming from everywhere, and I panicked, alright?" Ino curled in on herself, pulling her knees to her chest and trying to avoid Gaara's gaze by staring at the covers on the hospital bed instead.

"…Fix it."

"…I can't." Ino flinched, still refusing to look at Gaara. "I told you, I don't _know_ what I did. I just… I just did it. And I don't want to go back in your head. It's terrifying."

"_Fix it._"

Ino looked up, and froze at the look on Gaara's face… or what little she could see of it. She could see cracks, hair-thin lines running across what she had assumed was his skin, but now knew to be… armor, probably. A psychological response to internal cracking of some imagined mask? But it didn't matter, because she could see Gaara's eyes, and Gaara's eyes were wide, terrified, and desperate.

Ino knew those eyes.

All Yamanaka had to undergo stringent training in psychology before they were trusted with even the weakest of clan techniques. They needed to know what they could and couldn't do, needed to know how to analyze a person before jumping in, so that they'd be able to find what they were looking for as quickly as possible.

All Yamanaka had to sit in on at least three separate interrogations, three separate tortures, and three separate therapy sessions.

Ino knew the eyes of the terrified and desperate.

"I…" Ino gulped, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Why wasn't anyone here to get rid of this kid? Never mind, she had to stall or play along, both, really. Right, right, what could she, but that wouldn't, not an issue if she could—

Okay.

"I think I put up a mental block between your conscious and subconscious." Ino explained, dithering as she tried to remember. "Um… there were things there that were wrong, channels, I guess? I think… I think that there was a sort of… pressure build-up, maybe, because your mind was getting so cluttered for some reason. Er…"

She glanced up, not quite sure if she should ask, but… "The clutter that I noticed before panicking was… the pattern it presented, um… listen, do you have trouble sleeping?"

"I have slept three times in my life." Gaara growled. "Now tell me how to _bring back mother_."

Ino flinched, knowing that this boy could probably kill her without a thought. "I don't know how! I'd have to get back into your head, or someone else would, or you could meditate and figure it out on your own!"

Gaara stood up, coming closer, and Ino began to pulse her chakra in a fast pattern, repeating a distress signal that every Academy student learned as soon as they graduated. It was rare that it was needed, since most circumstances of distress weren't in a position where helpful shinobi were close enough to help, but so long as she was in the village…

"What are you?"

Ino blanched. That was the question that she should have been asking him!

Gaara folded his arms, glaring at her. Ino shifted uncomfortably, hoping that her chakra signal had been heard. "Wouldn't it be more polite to tell me what you are first?"

"Classified."

Ino felt a flash of irritation snap through her, and smothered it immediately. "I'm from the Yamanaka clan. Simply put, we're known as mind-readers." Not completely accurate, but that was why she had worded it as she had, rather than coming right out and saying anything. Moreover, she had kept it to the basics, to what was well-known, public information already. Her name had been given out at the prelims, and one could find out the Yamanaka specialty just by asking around.

Gaara frowned, opening his mouth to ask more, but was cut off as he suddenly found a wind-coated knuckle-blade at his throat.

"You have five seconds to explain what you're doing in my student's room before I cut through that defense you're so proud of." Asuma spoke around his unlit cigarette, an easy grin on his face, but his eyes were hard.

Gaara slowly turned his head to glare at Asuma, the loose sand that clung to his clothes detaching itself and shifting restlessly around his feet. "She needs to bring back mother."

Asuma raised one brow and turned to look at Ino.

"He refers to the voice in his head as his mother." Ino tried to explain, trying to avoid Gaara's gaze. He wasn't threatening to kill Asuma-sensei, though, so… maybe he thought the blade was actually a threat? Or maybe he thought that Ino would be more likely to 'fix' things if he avoided killing anyone she was close to, or… or something.

Unbeknownst to Ino, it was a mixture of the two, with the added knowledge that if Gaara killed someone now, then the invasion plans would be discovered, and thus he would lose the chance to kill even more people later on.

"Schizophrenia?" Asuma questioned, moving away from Gaara a little, causing the boy to become slightly less tense.

"No, because there's no way to separate that." Ino shook her head. "Gaara…" She looked at him again, and then back at Asuma. "It's either DID, or there's genuinely _something_ in his head with him."

Asuma blinked. He thought back to what he'd heard while watching the First Exam. He thought back to what the Uzumaki girl tagging along with Kakashi's team had informed them of. He thought back to what he'd seen Gaara doing through the Exams so far.

Oh yeah… this was the Jinchuuriki, wasn't it?

"I… I think I can undo it." Ino spoke, and Asuma's head snapped around to stare at her. No! Bad plan! Ino wasn't reading his mind, though, even if she could, so she didn't hear his warning. "I mean, I'd prefer it if my dad or another experienced clan member did it, but this is something that would be really interesting to look at, since we could do it under a controlled situation, and—"

"No." Asuma broke in before she went any further. "Ino, there are things that you aren't—"

"This has nothing to do with you." Gaara spoke lowly, glaring at the Konoha Jounin. "If she wishes to—"

"I am her sensei. It has _everything_ to do with me." Asuma grit his teeth. It wasn't a good idea to irritate a Jinchuuriki, especially one that was this unstable, but he couldn't let this happen. He sighed, angry but… "Compromise, then. If Inoichi approves and is present during the… event… then…"

"Fine." Gaara turned on his heel and left the room.

Asuma turned to Ino, who had collapsed back onto her pillows, pale as death. "Oh Kami…"

"Ino…" Asuma approached her, quite ready to lay into her for agreeing to something so ridiculously stupid.

"I can't fix him." Ino's voice was shaking. "Whatever it is that I pushed away, it was hurting him. To release it back to him would be…"

Asuma's words died on his lips, realizing that Ino knew perfectly well what she had been doing. "So…"

"I'm going to see if I can get rid of it for good instead."

Bad plan, Ino. Asuma shook his head. But better than anything else you could do to survive.

o.o.o.o.o

Hinata and Neji exited Hiashi's study together, and rather than immediately parting ways, as was usual for them, they paused just outside the door, standing in silence. Then Hinata turned and ran off down the corridor.

Neji spent fifteen seconds, far too long, deciding on whether to follow her or not. He didn't like Hinata, not at all after what happened when they were kids, but given what had just happened with Hiashi…

"Hinata-sama?" Neji came to stand several feet behind her, from where she was crouched at the edge of the pond in the back of the Hyuuga property.

"Not now, Neji-nii-san."

Neji flinched slightly at the appellation, but refused to leave. "He did not mean it as you believe."

"Then what _did_ he mean?" Hinata turned her face toward her cousin, eyes becoming puffy and a little red.

"Your opponent was an unknown, and was likely the same level as my own." Neji did not want to admit that Hinata had done well, especially given that it would mean admitting how close he had come to losing, but Hinata showing too much weakness would cause her father to grow less tolerant, and the same would happen with the Elders, and if one of them was grumpy enough to trigger someone's Caged Bird seal…

"You won."

"…Barely. But I was fated to win, just as you were fated to—"

"There is no fate, Neji-nii." The words did not come from Hinata, but from behind him.

Hanabi stood there, her hair hanging limply about her face, and then she looked at the wrappings around Neji's wrist. He shifted his arm, hiding the blood from further view. He'd spent a little too much time training that morning, and had made a mistake in his exhaustion later on.

Hanabi's eyes lingered on his sleeve after his wrist disappeared from her sight, hands twitching slightly. "What—"

"It is nothing you need to worry yourself over, Hanabi-sama." Neji spoke coldly, what little warmth he had managed to fake draining from his tone. "I believe I shall take my leave, now."

_There is no fate._

The words echoed through Neji's head as he turned and left. But it wasn't Hanabi's voice that haunted him.

It was Robin's.

_I have fought everything that has been thrown my way. Many have told me that it is my fate to die at their hands. That it is my fate to die before I cause more deaths. That it is my fate to pay for my supposed crimes. And yet… here I am. I have survived. I have fought, and I have survived, and I will continue to do so until such a time as I can no longer do so._

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Sometimes, I can predict how a chapter is received. Sometimes, I can't. And sometimes, I just get confused.**

**I mean… seriously, don't people normally hate filler?**

**EDIT: Okay, seeing as people seem to have gotten confused, here's what I meant by my comments on filler: in the last chapter, people didn't comment on the meat and potatoes of the chapter (the spy revelations), but focused on the word-padding filler at the beginning and end (the Croc scene and the Ino & Gaara scene).  
><strong>

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix.**


	32. Conspiracies

Deidara walked into the hotel room he was sharing with Sasori, carelessly throwing the box with all the information in the direction of the crouched, hunch-backed figure.

"Careful, brat." Sasori reprimanded him sharply.

"Tch. It's not like it'll break that easy, un." Deidara rolled his eyes, flopping backwards onto his bed, arms flung wide. "And besides, the information probably isn't all that important anyway."

"I'll be the judge of that."

Silence reigned for several minutes after that, inciting boredom in Deidara. He began to play with his clay, trying out several new designs before he was distracted by a sound that he heard only rarely, a sound that actually scared him quite a bit.

Sasori was laughing.

"What, un?" Deidara questioned hesitantly.

"Looks like I hired the right people." Sasori's tone was nastily smug. "The information they relayed is quite… interesting."

"Yeah, and…?" Deidara sat up, moving slightly closer, though still a little too disturbed to do so comfortably.

"There's news of two Jinchuuriki in Konoha, one of which is ours." Sasori held up Hiruko's tail to quiet Deidara, who immediately began to retort, thinking that that was all. "As well as sightings of Orochimaru, who appears to be planning some mass attack in conjunction with Suna on Konoha during the Chuunin Exams."

"…Orochimaru." Deidara began to grin, his mind already racing. "So I can kill tha—"

"_And_—" Sasori continued gleefully, reveling in the opportunities that were being presented to him with the information in the scroll. "There's at least two Main House Hyuuga that are young enough to be abducted without much trouble, as well as Itachi's younger brother, and several clan children all competing. There's even an injured Yuki! It's like a buffet for future puppets!" He cackled, his normal veneer of indifference falling away to reveal the madman beneath.

"…How did they get all of this, un?" Deidara asked, honestly curious. "I mean, I get that they're information specialists, but seriously, un. This is ridiculous."

"One of them managed to gain trust from Suna's Jinchuuriki." Sasori waved it away. "The rest is common knowledge that they managed to pick up just by being there and listening around."

"And the woman that they went to investigate in the first place, un?"

"Some information here and there, but it's nowhere near as important as all of this." Sasori chuckled. "I suppose I may even be a little merciful to our lovely little infiltrators when the time comes to pay."

"You're leaving them alive, un?" Deidara questioned. "Actually paying?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Sasori snapped. "I'll just make their deaths short and painless, rather than torturing them for even more information."

Deidara rolled his eyes. Of course.

"So, now that you have the info, un, what are you gonna do?" Deidara tilted his head to the side, curious.

"_We_," Sasori stressed, "Are going to take advantage of the confusion."

"You mean…"

"They'll be too busy fighting each other to notice us until it's too late." Sasori affirmed. "Which means we will have a chance to eliminate Orochimaru, as well as possibly capture one of the Jinchuuriki and some of the clan children."

"…Do I get to show them my art, un?"

"Those pathetic explosions are not _art_, brat."

Deidara scrambled up, ready to launch into yet another argument about art.

Konoha was none the wiser that their fate had just been sealed.

o.o.o.o.o

Haku fought the urge to blush in embarrassment as yet another nurse tried to coo over him like a particularly cute child. Granted, not every nurse had done so (and thank kami for that; some of them were quite no-nonsense, and many were male), but it was still a bit embarrassing, particularly since Zabuza was in the corner of the room, smirking at him.

Of course, both were aware that the amusement they gleaned from this was little more than a sad attempt to avoid thinking about Haku's arm…

Or lack thereof.

o.o.o.o.o

_Knock knock._

Robin blinked and turned towards the door, a little bemused as to who could possibly be there at the moment. She opened the door and raised an eyebrow. "Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke pushed his way inside, unminding of decorum. "I have a question."

Robin sat down across from him. If he was going to get to the point so quickly, then she would do the same. Though she was not quite pleased by his lack of manners. "Yes?"

"I was going through the basement of the Naka shrine in the old Uchiha clan compound." Sasuke began to ramble, his hands fisted on his legs, clenched tight against the fabric of his shorts. "There was a legend there, about something called the Juubi, and some princess, and…" Sasuke took a deep breath, visibly frustrated with his inability to understand something, unused to the feeling of knowledge not being easily within his reach.

"Robin, how do you have chakra?" The question rushed out.

Robin blinked, not quite sure how to answer. "I would assume in the same manner as any other being. Even the air has chakra, so I see no reason for a person not to."

"But that's not how it works!" Sasuke protested. "People didn't have chakra before!"

"Before what?" Robin blinked, and then froze. "Sasuke. Do you have information regarding the past that may not be in easily-accessed places such as a library?"

"…I don't know." Sasuke muttered. "I just read it on some stone tablet in the shrine. There's a lot of them there. I can't read all of them, but I can read a few, if I use my Sharingan."

Robin blinked, and the air rushed out of her. "Like a Poneglyph…"

Even if it wasn't related to the Poneglyphs, even if it wasn't in regards to her own world, the very presence of information like this, of information regarding history that had been thought lost to the ages… it made her heart race.

"Sasuke-kun, I would very much like to see these tablets."

It wasn't a request.

o.o.o.o.o

Amazing.

Robin ran her hand over the inscriptions, noting how the form seemed to waver under her fingertips. It was not that she could see the illusion quivering, but that the touch of the stone seemed a hair off from what she saw. It was powerful, though, seeing as Sasuke could only see something different with his Sharingan activated.

But what was interesting was that she _had_ seen inscriptions like these before. It wasn't a poneglyph, and the writing wasn't the same as what could be found on one, but she recognized the basic symbols, ones that she had not come across in this world. To be frank, she had only rarely come across them in her own world, and even then, it was only in books from the Tree of Knowledge.

And what a story it told…

Sasuke's Sharingan, when activated, allowed him to read the writings. It washed away the genjutsu, though only an Uchiha could read it then. The language it was written in was simply _wrong_ to anyone without one… unless, of course, one had trained to read it, in which case the Uchiha simply had to wash away the genjutsu for the time being.

Robin counted herself lucky, to be the one to find this. Very, very lucky.

The parts about the Mangekyo Sharingan and the like were worrying, but they didn't quiet interest her as much as the ties that she found. Now those, _those_ were what intrigued her.

The God Tree, the Juubi, had been destroyed, at most, a single millennium earlier. At the least, it had been destroyed seven hundred years ago. That much, she could glean simply from guesswork based on the writing patterns. What made that interesting was that that period of time also covered the Void Century.

And then… the story. The tree. The fruit. The birth of power in the human race.

It always came back to trees and fruit. The God Tree. The Tree of Knowledge. The Treasure Tree Adam. The Sunlight Tree Eve. The original chakra fruit. The many Devil Fruit.

It was all so closely tied, and now, if she could only find what that tie _was…_

The writing blurred and went back to its original form, a simple stone slab detailing the basic praises of the Uchiha clan.

Robin turned to see Sasuke standing in sharp relief, pale as a ghost, with his Sharingan deactivated.

The poor boy had probably wasted most of his chakra for this. For her.

Robin smiled softly at him and stood up, tucking her notebook securely into her bag. "Let's go get some lunch, shall we? I'll treat."

Sasuke nodded, stumbling after her.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I'll end it there.**

**Yes, I'm manipulating canon events to my own advantage. I KNOW THAT SOME OF WHAT I WROTE DOESN'T QUITE LINE UP WITH CANON. Sasuke probably needs a Mangekyo or Rinnegan to read the Princess Kaguya story. Kishi will probably disprove my timeframe for the tree sometime soon, likely by forcing another chakra fruit to grow (come on, you know he would), the one that only comes once a millennium. Though, on that note, I'm pretty sure that I could make another tie to the Adam and Eve trees from One Piece, due to the forbidden nature of that fruit. And I **_**KNOW**_** that at least one person is going to try to argue with me over how Robin can't possibly read the stone, and how a language like that can't possibly exist in both worlds, and just… don't. Please. I know the arguments, and I don't enjoy them.**

**Now, for everyone who was wondering just what my plan with the OCs was, just why I was so focused on the information transfer scene a few chapters ago… there. Feast your eyes. There are repercussions, and they're all Robin's fault. If you haven't connected the dots as to why, yet, I'm going to wonder if you've read any of the OC scenes or the author's notes at all. As for how each piece of info was gathered…**

**Infiltrator nin, in my opinion, likely have enhanced senses, hearing included. One of them was listening in when Kakashi, Gai, and Asuma told Kurenai what happened during Chapter 23, which is how they knew about Orochimaru, and also shows hints of how they knew about Haku. Sasuke and the Hyuuga girls are self-explanatory, and Naruto's "condition" isn't really much of a secret in Konoha, so long as you know what you're looking for, honestly. Gaara would be a bit more difficult to guess, but based on Chapters 21 and 22, they were already on the right track due to sensor skills among the team. The most difficult information to glean would be the invasion plans, but Daiya spent several days around Gaara, manipulating him and listening in on his conversations. She could have picked it up then, and the others could have managed to catch something here or there as well, though if Konoha didn't notice, then the proximity to Gaara was probably the infiltrator team's only hope.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	33. To Ask a Friend

**A/N: The events of this chapter, starting with the second scene, happen for two reasons.**

**One, I was running out of other material.**

**Two… I was getting REALLY tired of all the begging. Would it kill you guys to actually relax and let ME decide the flow of the story?**

o.o.o.o.o

Karin, nervous as she was, felt the people coming before they go there. Her sensei was off in mourning, along with writing some letters home to inform her teammates' parents of the unfortunate news, so she was alone in her room at the hotel.

Her eyes kept straying to the belongings of her dead teammates, kept dredging up memories that she wanted to keep buried, and…

The knocking that came from the door was a welcome distraction.

"Come in!"

Sasuke edged into the room, closing the door silently behind him. Karin blinked at him in confusion, and the blushed a little as she realized that, yes, she _was_ alone in a room with the boy that had saved her life.

"…Hi." Sasuke finally said, taking a seat that Karin hadn't offered, though she didn't much mind.

"Um…" Karin kicked her legs a little against the chair. "Why are you here?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Robin is busy, Naruto's training for the Third Exam with some old pervert, and Kakashi-sensei is busy training Sakura. They're worried that I might accidentally leak information from one teammate to the other, so they're not letting me sit in on any training sessions."

"So I'm all you had left, then." Karin surmised, a little disappointed that he had gone to her as a last resort as opposed to actually seeking out her company.

"You were the most appealing of the remaining possibilities." Sasuke corrected. "I don't have the patience to deal with some of my old classmates right now."

"Right…"

The silence, at that point, decided that it was best suited to be awkward.

"I'm hungry." Sasuke stood up suddenly, and turned to the door. "Come on, I'll show you some of the restaurants here in Konoha."

Karin nodded, relieved that she would both be out of the room and that there was something to do and not be awkward about.

Over the next few weeks, this became a common occurrence.

o.o.o.o.o

"You're here sooner than I thought you would be." Robin mused, smiling. As was by now normal for her, the upper half of her body was growing out of the countertop at Shakky's bar, and she had her chin resting on the palm of her hand.

"We had a fair bit of luck on the way." Crocodile growled, crossing his arms and taking a seat on a chair that looked to be too small for him. Daz Bonez stood behind him, face set in its customary frown. "Why don't you bring yourself here fully?"

"That is… complicated." Robin smiled. "And I would't want to accidentally lose my tether on the other world."

"You believe that you would be unable to return there if you came here?" Crocodile asked.

"It would certainly be more difficult. For the moment, I am not needed in this world, so I will bide my time in the other one for as long as I can." Robin smiled. "It's rather interesting as well."

The man in the furs narrowed his eyes at the smile in her eyes. "You found something regarding the True History."

"I found hints." Robin corrected. "And the story they paint is a puzzle unlike any I have ever seen."

"Something that you are quite fond of." Crocodile spoke softly, almost fondly, though the glint in his eyes spoke of an old grudge. "We will talk more once we are in that world. Now, how are you going to do this?"

Robin smiled and pointed to the ground, where a flurry of hands formed a small platform. "Step there, and I will cover you in arms, until you are completely surrounded. I will pull up a mimicry of those arms in the other world, and then disperse the ones here."

Crocodile stared at her in suspicion. "That sounds… volatile."

"It worked on the bunny." Robin said, as though that meant it was perfectly safe. "Though, based on my own experiences, you will feel a rather disorienting sensation of duality during the point where there are two of you."

Crocodile's eyes turned to Daz, as though searching for a second opinion. Though there was no discernible reaction, he turned to Robin again. "This better be worth it, Nico Robin."

"But of course." Robin's smile was all woven sugar and fake warmth. Pretty and fake.

Crocodile took a step forward onto the hands, his body primed to turn into sand at a moment's notice if necessary, not quite trusting Robin to not attempt to crush him during the supposed transferal. Old grudges tended to have a hard time dying, after all, and he _had_ tried to kill Robin before, even nearly succeeded in doing so.

The hands grew up around his body, and he forced himself not to squirm as they grasped at him, nor to flinch and attack as they came up to cover his head, covering his vision and blocking him from the world.

His head was split by a sudden migraine, and he felt his consciousness divide in two, the sensation crawling down his body, from head to toe, until it was suddenly gone, as quickly as it had come.

He stumbled slightly when the hands disappeared, leaving several inches between him and the ground after the disorienting experience of being in two places at once, but regained his balance within seconds. Several feet away, he saw Robin's full body sitting cross-legged, eyes closed.

"Hello."

He turned slowly to see a young woman, perhaps the same age as Robin, with wild black hair and surprisingly bright red eyes. Her dress was a disorienting mess of layers, probably designed in a manner to confuse opponents, and there were visible weapons on her person, and probably a few besides.

"I am Yuuhi Kurenai, Jounin of Konohagakure." The woman stepped forward and held out her hand, one that Crocodile, after a moment's consideration, grasped lightly and shook. "I was sent to watch over Nico-san during today's events, and will be the one to lead your group into the village and to the Hokage."

Crocodile nodded, and, after a moment, just a split second before it would have become too late to be anything but rude, gave his own name. "Crocodile, former Shichibukai."

Kurenai's eyes narrowed slightly, but she said nothing, instead turning her gaze towards the emptier part of the clearing, and Crocodile, having nothing better to do, followed suit. After a long, pregnant pause, they were rewarded by the sight of a tightly-woven web of arms pulling itself up from the ground, ruffling the grass and growing larger.

They dissipated to reveal Daz Bonez, the former Mr. 1, who reacted similarly to Crocodile upon dropping to the ground. As soon as he caught sight of Crocodile, the bald man headed over to him, taking up a position just behind his boss's right shoulder.

Another several seconds passed in awkward silence between the two pirates and the kunoichi, and then Robin slowly opened her eyes and smiled unnervingly, standing and not even bothering to stretch herself out.

"Shall we head in?"

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Short chapter this time, sorry. I'm a little busy at the moment. And nearly failing Calculus. Have to take care of that… And no, fanfiction does not take priority over Calculus, no matter how I may feel about the subject.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	34. As Time Flies

**A/N: You know, I was at a panel at NYCC a few weeks ago, and one of the authors on the panel gave out a pretty good piece of advice.**

"**Think about whether the scene is necessary. Would the story still work just fine if you removed the scene entirely? If the answer is yes, then you don't need that scene."**

**Going by that logic, I skipped any formal meeting between Crocodile and Hiruzen. It would have just been boring and monotonous and unnecessary.**

**Ta-ta.**

o.o.o.o.o

Crocodile was reminded, once again, why he hated kids.

They had annoying, grating voices. They asked questions that had obvious, self-explanatory answers. They were rarely strong enough to bother even looking at.

And they never. Shut. Up.

"Konohamaru-kun," Robin's voice caught Crocodile's attention, and he turned to look at the woman. Thankfully, the interruption had caught the attention of the brat that he had agreed to train for a reason he could no longer remember after the hours of ridiculous chatter.

Robin, Crocodile surmised, found far too much enjoyment in the fact she was allowed to stay on the sidelines as he attempted to keep his temper from spilling over as he _attempted_ to teach the annoying brat that had eaten the Mera Mera no Mi.

The brat was… well, he was obviously _trying_ to do what he was supposed to, if only because he seemed utterly terrified of setting things on fire by accident (something that had apparently happened far too often in the past few weeks) and of Crocodile as well. But the brat was utterly infuriating as well, a snot-nosed little—well, he was like most kids. And Crocodile wasn't fond of children. The only one he'd ever tolerated with ease was Ms. Goldenweek, and that was because she was somewhat mature and reasonably useful.

Robin was probably the only thing keeping him from trying to kill the kid. Daz wouldn't stop him, and he doubted that the red-eyed woman from before, who still hadn't left, could actually do anything.

(Crocodile, it must be noted, had not been informed of Kurenai's position as one of, if not the, best Genjutsu masters in the village, and certainly among the best on the continent.)

(That position was one of the two reasons Kurenai had been chosen to be present during Konohamaru's training, the other being that, unlike the other elite Jounin, she had neither a genin to prepare for the third exam, nor solo missions to run. Neither one was a guarantee on its own, but together they made Kurenai the best choice by far.)

His attention was ripped from the now-frustrated attempts to teach the brat in his care, and brought to the sight of a rather sickly-looking man that had just entered the room.

Kurenai glanced at Crocodile, and then gestured at the man that had just entered. "Gekko Hayate. He's a Jounin of Konohagakure."

Crocodile was only reminded of Gekko Moria, a monster of a human being, a man who was extremely different from the one that stood before him.

The man nodded at Kurenai, and then turned to look at Robin. "You were reasonably well-acquainted with Daiten Kinishi and her team, yes?"

Robin frowned. "Somewhat."

"Is there anyone affiliated with Konohagakure other than yourself and Hatake Kakashi that knew them better?" Hayate questioned, all business.

"Not that I know of." Robin said, growing suspicious.

"Please come with me."

o.o.o.o.o

Hanabi sat on her bed, pouting and kicking her legs. Her father was busy drilling Hinata in more Jyuuken (after the disaster that was the second round of exams, this was the norm; at least Hiashi acknowledged that it may not have been Hinata's fault, but simply the fact that her opponent was too skilled in the Jyuuken's weaker areas), and Neji was out with his teammate, practicing.

She was so bored.

It wasn't that she had nothing to do. She had tests to study for (but they were so easy), and kata to practice (which she had down near perfectly already), and techniques to learn from Kabuto… if he was _there_.

But he'd been absent so much lately, and rarely offered any sort of explanation, so she could only imagine that he was growing tired of her.

So _bored…_

o.o.o.o.o

"Ino, I know that you took the best option you could see, but…"

"I'm sorry, Tou-san." Ino felt the grip on her hand tighten, a silent sign from her father that she was forgiven for her mistakes.

Together, the two Yamanaka walked into the room where Gaara waited. The boy would have been alone amongst the Konoha shinobi had his sister not insisted on staying in the room with him, a choice that even Gaara seemed unhappy with. Temari had refused to budge, however, no matter how often Gaara threatened to kill both her and Kankuro.

(And didn't that send shivers down all their spines. The last fratricidal shinobi they'd had to deal with was Itachi, after all, and given the fact that Gaara was younger, far more visibly insane, and had already proven himself to be quite powerful… well.)

Thankfully, Temari had somehow managed to convince him that she should stay, and was now sitting in the corner, a hint of worry just barely coloring her features.

"Nice to see that you two are finally here." Jiraiya rumbled from his own spot, lurching up onto his feet. Jiraiya was by far the largest person in the room, and he made Gaara, just a few small feet away, look almost comically small.

"We were going over some last-minute plans." Inoichi spoke calmly, betraying none of his apprehension. "Don't you have a student to train?"

Jiraiya waved a hand dismissively. "I managed to foist him off to his old Chunin teacher for the day to revise some basics. The man is apparently a much better fighter than his rank indicates, so the brat will be able to get along fine without me for a day."

_Iruka-sensei_. Ino thought, the face flashing up into her mind. Yeah, okay. Jiraiya-sama was training Naruto, right? She didn't know why, but… well, anyway, Iruka was a good teacher, and he and Naruto got along pretty well, so she didn't need to feel guilty about that.

She needed to focus her mind on the upcoming task, after all.

Taking a deep, calming breath and squeezing her father's hand one last time, Ino stepped forward, letting go completely. "Let's begin."

Gaara's eyes locked with hers, and that predatory curiosity was once more focused on her.

"Yes. Let's."

o.o.o.o.o

A blonde girl, teenaged, lounged back on the prison bed. This wasn't part of the plans, never had been, but they had contingencies for it.

Unfortunate, but necessary.

Pale blue eyes flickered over to the side as shouting emanated from beyond the walls of the cramped room. Someone was very angry, and she was sure she knew who.

o.o.o.o.o

"TenTen, that's enough." Neji tried to keep the weariness out of his voice, but failed, though barely. TenTen smirked at him, sealing away her not-so-shiny new weapon with a puff of smoke.

"Tired?"

"TenTen." The only word he spoke to rebuke her was her name, and yet, coming from Neji as it did, the word was still so much heavier than it could have been.

"Fine, fine." TenTen still couldn't keep the smile out of her voice as she jogged to catch up to Neji, who was already leaving the training grounds. "Still, I can't wait for the finals. I'm so excited!"

That much, Neji noted, was rather clear. TenTen had worn a self-satisfied, almost manic, utterly giddy grin for a week now, ever since she'd begun to practice with the weapon she had earned for herself. Sure, it only worked in certain situations, but it would be rather powerful as a siege (or anti-siege) weapon. He doubted it would do her much good in the fights unless she somehow ended up fighting Gaara, who seemed far more prone to standing still than any of the other possible opponents.

"How are you feeling about your fight?" TenTen tilted her head, leaning forward a little to read Neji's face as they walked together. "I mean, I know you're confident; you always are. But other than that?"

Ah, right. _He_ was the one fighting Gaara.

"It's going to be difficult." Neji stated with difficulty. He didn't want to admit it, but it was true. "Gaara is the son of the Kazekage, and there have been those strange rumors floating about the shinobi populace…"

"Yeah, I know." TenTen stretched her arms into the sky, then relaxed, sighing and tucking her arms behind her head. "Yeesh. Only a week left, right?"

"Yes."

"You could at least _pretend_ to be a little more excited." TenTen rolled her eyes as they reentered the civilian areas of the village, then paused momentarily as she spotted a vaguely familiar face. "Oi, Uchiha!"

Sasuke turned around, as did the redheaded girl beside him. The girl (Ka… Karin?) shied away from them, hiding behind the Uchiha heir as she saw them paying attention to her.

"What?" Ah, yes, the waspish tone of the irritated elite. TenTen remembered when Neji had talked to her with that sort of tone.

There was a reason he didn't do it anymore.

"Neji and I just finished training. You're going to eat, right?" They were in a restaurant-heavy sector of the village, after all. TenTen's stomach chose that moment to rumble. She smiled sheepishly. "Mind if we join you? The more the merrier, right?"

"TenTen." Neji hissed, obviously displeased. She cheerily ignored him.

"Sasuke…" The redhead tugged on Sasuke's shirtsleeve, then whispered in his ear, one hand up to keep Neji and TenTen from reading her lips. Her eyes, now that it was confirmed that TenTen and Neji were, if not friends, at least somewhat acquainted and reasonably friendly, were no longer shy, but… coolly suspicious, perhaps.

Sasuke snorted, and then nodded, rather too curt for TenTen's tastes. That needed to be fixed. "Fine."

"Good. C'mon Neji."

o.o.o.o.o

Haku had little difficulty walking, but knew that he needed time to relearn how to do anything more complicated in the way of flipping, jumping, and other acrobatic maneuvers. This, he reasoned, was especially problematic in situations where Zabuza was likely to start a fight of some sort, though it didn't seem like that would happen any time soon… yet.

"A man turned sword, eh?" Zabuza raised a non-existent eyebrow, hefting his own sword over his shoulder. "Fun. I've seen living swords before, but never something like you."

Daz didn't reply, simply narrowing his eyes and tightening the crossed position of his arms.

"Jeez, loosen up a little." Zabuza snorted. "How about a spar."

The idea rolled around in Daz's head for a few moments. He was, at the moment, free from Crocodile's side (had been sent away, in fact), and had little in the way of possible amusements.

"Alright."

Zabuza grinned beneath his bandages, and Haku groaned, if only in the back of his head.

"Splendid."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Sorry about it being so late (and **_**abominably**_** short), but I've been low on inspiration recently.**

**I **_**do**_**, however, have some fun news. I created a tumblr (yes, with the same username as here), so if you find phoenixyfriend on there, you will find me. And the blog is **_**completely dedicated to fanfiction**_**.**

**You can ask me questions, catch spoilers, get advice, whatever, and you can even do it on anon if you want (I don't answer guest reviews, so this is for those of you who are too shy to say hello but want to ask something anyway). I'm willing to clarify and expand on a lot, so if you have a question that you think others would be interested in, you can ask it there.**

**The main reason for this is actually to keep my motivation high. I can't really write when I don't have motivation, but if people are talking to me about my stories, well… there you have it, right?**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	35. Let's Begin, Shall We?

Robin was quiet as she entered the room, not drawing any attention from the two that were arguing in the front. Unfortunately for her, she knew both of them.

Hayate stood behind her, a silent shadow hidden from Ibiki and Kinishi.

"—no legitimate reason to hold her here! It completely violates the—"

"—suspicious behavior, and you're under suspicion as well by association, so unless you want to—"

"—absolutely _ridiculous_ that you would hold a genin as a—"

"—actually think she's a genin? That's complete bull—"

"Ahem." Hayate coughed, and Robin was rather relieved that she had not needed to be the one to break up the argument. "So, we've got our mediator?"

Mediator. So that was what she was meant to be now. Just what was going on?

o.o.o.o.o

Sakkaku tilted her head to the side, near-white hair swinging behind her even from that slight movement. The arguing outside the cell had stopped, and she was rather thankful for that. She doubted they would let her out of their own volition, but it wasn't as though she would be stuck there forever.

She could already feel her blood boiling in her veins, and that could only mean one thing, one person.

All she had to do was wait.

o.o.o.o.o

"Kabuto-sensei!" Hanabi almost squealed, but managed to hold back (like a _proper_ Hyuuga) at the last second.

"Hello, Hanabi-chan." Kabuto chuckled, and then actually _picked her up_ and swung her around in a circle like a little kid, setting her back down after a few dizzying turns.

She glared up at him, even though, given her age, it did little to intimidate him. "I'm too old for that, sensei!"

"Hm… no, I don't think you are." Kabuto smiled at her. "Now, why don't you show my how much you've improved since the last time I saw you?"

Hanabi grew quiet, and then took a breath. "Kabuto-sensei, where were you? I know you weren't training for the third exam like Neji, so why have you been gone so much?"

Kabuto grew thoughtful. "Well, there are a few reasons, but mostly because I've had to put in more time at the hospital since I failed out of the exams. Plus, my team's sensei decided we have to do more missions to be ready for the next exam, so that's been taking up a lot of time as well."

"Oh." Hanabi looked down at the ground, and then looked back up at Kabuto. "I think I've gotten better, sensei!"

The white-haired medic chuckled. "Alright then. Let's see it."

o.o.o.o.o

The noises were deafening.

Karin had talked her sensei into letting her stay with Sasuke for viewing the finals, something that hadn't taken too much work, all things considered. With the amount of time the two had spent together over the past several weeks, Sasuke was actually one of the few people Karin felt completely at ease with, and her teacher had noticed it enough to somewhat trust Sasuke with her. The two were somewhat isolated in the crowd, not knowing anyone nearby. On the one hand, that meant that they didn't have to listen to one of Sasuke's fangirls yammering away at him and annoying both of them.

On the other hand, it was incredibly crowded, which meant that Karin was pressed into Sasuke's side in attempt to shield herself from the sheer noise, as well as to try and distract herself from the ridiculous levels of chakra that were pressing in on her from all directions.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke's voice was flat and he didn't really sound like the answered mattered to him, but he had asked, so that meant that he at least cared a little, right?

"Not really." Karin winced as a particularly loud wave crossed the crowd. "I can handle it, though."

"Alright." Sasuke muttered, eyes scanning the crowd in hopes to see someone he knew well enough to sit by. His eyes immediately caught the sight of the Hyuuga in one corner, but seeing as he didn't know any of them other than Neji and Hinata (one of whom was competing, and the other of whom was sitting with her team), he didn't head over.

"Who's competing in which order, again?" Karin asked, lightly squeezing his arm to gain his attention.

"Gaara and Neji are first." He knew that with confidence, "And then… those other two from Suna. Puppet guy and the girl with the giant fan."

"Kankuro and Temari." Karin nodded. "I think I talked to them once or twice when we were inside that tower in the forest."

"Right." He hadn't bothered to remember their names. "Then Naruto and Sakura." Like he could forget that one. "Followed by TenTen and the guy from the mercenary team. Shikamaru's got a bye, unless someone forfeits from the get-go."

"Right…"

Sasuke's eyes finally stopped as he caught the sight of several familiar heads. "I see Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino. They're with team eight and Rock Lee."

"…I don't know who's on—"

"Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino." Sasuke rattled off. "None of them are really my first choice of company, but if you don't mind, we can go sit with them until the fights start."

Karin nodded. "Sure."

o.o.o.o.o

"You ready?" TenTen muttered to Neji, though her eyes weren't focused on him. Rather, they were roving around the area reserved for contestants, trying to do some last minute analysis of the competition. Her first opponent would be Yagira, but the boy himself wasn't showing much other than panic, and from what few mutters she heard, that panic was unrelated to the exams, and more connected to his teammates and something regarding a jail.

"I am." Neji's eyes were doing the same, the pale irises near indistinguishable from the rest of his eyes. "However, I am… uncertain."

TenTen's mouth quirked up a little. "Yeah, one time your little fate obsession is being challenged. You're fighting the son of the Kazekage, one that apparently has some sort of demon, if the rumors are true. No way to predict the outcome of that, huh?"

"TenTen, don't—" His retort was stopped by the presence of his teammate's hand over his mouth.

"Sh…" TenTen bit back a chuckle. "It'll all be fine."

Neji didn't even bother to roll his eyes at that.

o.o.o.o.o

"This is ridiculous." Crocodile spoke from his spot between Daz and Robin. The former had several thin scars dotting his person, while the latter was more or less immaculate, her customary half-smile on her face though it was strangely fixed.

"Perhaps it seems that way to you," Robin's eyes were on the empty arena below, and her thoughts elsewhere completely. "But this is a tradition, an important one, to them. It even functions to prevent wars from breaking out."

"Hmph." The unnaturally tall man (at least, unnaturally tall for this world) was unimpressed. However, interest darted its way across his features as three people made their way onto the field. One of them was visibly the proctor. One of them was Hyuuga Neji. And the last…

"That's the brat that can control sand because of some demon, correct?"

Robin nodded, her eyes tracking Gaara. The boy seemed… tired. Somewhat apathetic, really. Rather than having the same murderous look in his eyes as she had seen before, he seemed distracted, not even looking directly at Neji.

She hoped he was alright.


	36. Final Exams

She was lucky that such a large portion of Konoha was distracted by the Chunin exams right now.

Well… it wasn't like she _needed_ luck. But the captain would probably be happier if less people died. Silly medic's vows or something. Then again, mad as she acted, even _she_ had some level of sanity left, some base knowledge that all life was precious. Just… not as precious as it needed to be. Not so precious that she wouldn't bother snuffing it out to save her teammate.

Daiya smiled as she knocked out the guard. Simply stall the blood from afar for a few precious seconds, and anyone was out like a light. After no one else came running, she slipped down from her invisible spot on the ceiling and loped over to the jail cell.

She was lucky that she only needed to break into the jail and not the prison.

"Was the blood boiling really necessary?" Sakkaku sat on the other side of the bars, arms and legs both crossed, staring out with a look of irritation.

"I needed to warn you, didn't I?" Daiya laid a hand against the bars, closing her eyes, then slowly closed her hand around one. The metal seemed to shimmer, flaking and cracking off, disintegrating where her skin touched the metal. "Lucky it's iron, eh?"

"Quite." Sakkaku swung herself out of the cell, landing lightly on the ground. She glanced at the unresponsive guard. "Dead?"

"Nah, just unconscious." Daiya rolled her eyes. "C'mon, let's go. No one wants to see us here, and I didn't knock out the cameras."

"Of course."

o.o.o.o.o

Robin rested her chin on her palm, watching the fight between Neji and Gaara with a detached look on her face, a mysterious smile on her face as always. Despite her expression, she was actually quite interested in the battle. Gaara was sluggish with his sand, at least in comparison to the way it had been in the preliminaries. He still had his sand armor in place, which meant that Neji was growing increasingly inventive in his plans to fight Gaara (and given the explosive notes and smoke bombs that he was using, he had been creating plans for a long time in advance, as TenTen must have been helping him with those). Granted, Neji had revealed his Kaiten again (and in front of the entire stadium, too, Hyuuga included), but he was nearly unscathed by the sand. The two were not outright fighting so much as testing one another for holes in their defenses.

"This is taking too long." Crocodile grumbled, shifting in his seat. Had Crocodile not been as intimidating a man as he was, several people would have already yelled at him for blocking their view with his bulk. As it was, they mostly just leaned over and tried to sit in one another's laps to see around the former Shichibukai.

"They're at something of a stalemate. Gaara is very long range, but is extremely good at defense. Neji is mostly close-range with some long-range techniques that he picked up from TenTen, but he also has his own nearly perfect defense." Robin mused. "However, Neji will likely be the one to concede the match, as he has much smaller chakra reserves. He can't keep up the Kaiten forever, and his 64-palms can't pierce through Gaara's sand armor well-enough to… oh."

"What?" Crocodile demanded after he noticed Robin's expression. He kept an eye out on the arena, which was filling rapidly with smoke bombs, blocking the view.

"Oh, you clever boy." Robin was smiling again, hand held up to her mouth to hide it, if rather ineffectually. Her eyes were trained on Neji, who seemed to have begun implementing a new plan that focused on the weapons and tags he'd borrowed from TenTen. "It seems you _did_ take a chance to listen."

"I'd like an answer now, Ms. All Sunday." Of course he'd use that old name…

"Do you notice anything strange about those smoke clouds?" Robin gestured down. "The color, perhaps?"

Crocodile glanced down, but didn't see anything of note. Though… "The paper they came from, the so-called tags… their labels are different."

Robin nodded, smiling almost smugly. "Neji is using smoke tags that have been laced with something, likely a sedative of some sort. Killing the Kazekage's son would cause enough political trouble for him to avoid most poisons, but it may be one of the only ways to attack Gaara without having to find a way to physically pierce through the shield."

"Reasonable plan." Crocodile wasn't above admitting when someone had done something noteworthy. "Though he likely needs at least a few more backup plans."

"You always were fond of those." Robin smiled, watching as, below, Gaara swayed in place, glaring at Neji. The Hyuuga in question retreated as far as possible and bided his time, dodging the sloppy streams of sand that came his way. "But it seems that it was unnecessary."

"If the kid is that easy to take down, then what was the point of me coming here?" Crocodile grunted.

"The Mera Mera no mi?" Robin suggested. "It's entirely possible that Gaara was holding back or adjusting to some large change that had occurred. And we know that there are still problems coming."

Crocodile didn't answer, just shifted in his seat and continued to watch the children that fought below.

o.o.o.o.o

"Nii-san…" Hanabi had her hands over her face. Not out of fear of seeing what would happen, but out of embarrassment for her cousin. The fact that he'd done so well, even if it had included a fair bit of unconventional tactics, meant that the women around her were currently discussing what the best marriage prospects for him were.

He was only _thirteen!_

She took her hands down as the next fight was announced, between the other two from Suna (she couldn't really hear their names over all the shouting, but she didn't care much either).

It was probably a good thing, because the boy from Suna immediately forfeited.

There was silence for several seconds, followed by large booing, and the boy seemed nervous, but stood firm.

(Over the sound of the crowd, Hanabi could just barely hear him saying that he refused to fight his sister.)

(If that was his plan, then why hadn't he said so _before_ today?)

Hanabi watched as the proctor spoke to someone on his headset, and then raised his hands for everyone to calm down. "As it is, we have a competitor that was meant to take a bye or be an alternative, so please welcome Nara Shikamaru!"

Hanabi watched the area where the competitors were waiting, and could tell from even this distance that the boy in question did _not_ want to go down to the arena and fight. Unfortunately for him, at least three different people (including the pink-haired girl) seemed to make various threats (including something that made Hanabi's father _almost smile_ and mutter about Nara men someone called "Yoshino") that got him to get up and actually go down to the arena.

What followed was a fight that was very, very, very long, made Hanabi very, very bored, and allowed her a chance to wander away (with her father's permission, of course) very late in the battle.

And she knew just where she wanted to wander away to.

o.o.o.o.o

Hinata was nervous. Antsy, really. As soon as Shikamaru and Temari's match ended (and that took a while, with Shikamaru forfeiting after he'd already won), she started tensing up, because it was Naruto's turn to fight, even if it was only against Sakura. The reason Hinata thought of her "only" Sakura was that the girl was someone who had a very, very low chance of significantly hurting Naruto, because neither one wanted to send the other to the hospital (at least, not for longer than a day or two), because they were teammates.

Still, it made her nervous. She could cheer for Naruto now, sure, but she couldn't really be heard if she did. Kiba was sitting to her left, and he'd probably help her if she asked, and Karin, two seats to her right (Sasuke was between them), would probably cheer for her cousin of her own volition, but Naruto wasn't exactly popular enough for them to be heard over the rest of the white noise the crowd made.

"Onee-sama?"

Hinata blinked and turned around, smiling softly when she saw who was there. "Hanabi-chan. Did Otou-san tell you that you could come?"

"Yes." Hanabi looked around, clearly searching for a seat, and finding that none were available. Hinata wordlessly patted her lap, and Hanabi hopped up to sit there, Hinata's arms automatically coming around to hug her and make sure she didn't fall off by accident.

Hanabi had met Kiba and Shino, and she knew Lee through Neji (she couldn't decide if that was a bad thing or not), and she even knew of Ino, Chouji, and Sasuke through reputation. Unfortunately, she didn't know who the last person was.

The last person, with red hair and eyes, was a girl, and that girl noticed rather quickly that Hanabi was staring at her. She didn't seem to appreciate it. "Can I help you?"

Hanabi flushed. She was supposed to have better manners than that! "I just didn't recognize you. I know the others, but—"

"Uzumaki Karin." The girl interrupted her, clearly still a little upset by the earlier staring. Hinata squeezed Hanabi for a second, lightly reminding her to keep her head about her and not get distracted by things. Hanabi had heard Neji mention running into this girl, once, but he'd called her shy. Maybe she was just more at ease with being abrasive around kids?

"The match is starting." Uchiha Sasuke (huh, so this is what the other heirs were like…) pointed out, drawing Karin's attention back to the arena.

"Right." And Karin snuggled into Sasuke's side, or got as close to doing so as one could around the Uchiha, and Hanabi found that almost as interesting as the figh—

_Did Uzumaki Naruto just use fifty clones to attack in all directions at once instead of just breaking the genjutsu he was under?!_

"Idiot." Sasuke grunted, pinching the bridge of his nose. Karin snorted, eyes still trained on the field, though they occasionally flicked around to other places where there wasn't anything to see. Maybe she had a doujutsu? It would explain the red eyes.

"How was he left so susceptible to genjutsu?" Karin muttered. "Didn't he bother to prepare at all? Sakura's building up at least three at once right now, and he doesn't look like he can sense a single one of them."

"Most genin can't sense genjutsu when they're carefully made." Sasuke pointed out.

"He's trying to prove that he's worthy of Chuunin status." Karin retorted.

"Point." Sasuke conceded. "But even then, not everyone is as sensitive to chakra as you are."

"He's an Uzumaki. Even if he isn't at my level, he shouldn't be _this_ insensitive to it."

Sasuke just sighed and turned his attention back to the fight.

That was when the feathers began to fall.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I don't like long vacations from school. I lose all motivation during them, and then it takes weeks to get back into writing.**

**My vacation lasted from mid-December to the end of January. I hated it. I'm taking winter classes next year, at least one. And I'm hoping to take summer classes as well.**

**I'll be catching up with the chapters that should have been written during my period of ineptness, but you'll have to be patient. And please do review, because that will help me regain my motivation. There as a big review count drop last chapter, and while I know the chapter itself was shorter than normal, I was fairly disappointed.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	37. The Battle Begins

Robin felt her mind growing hazy, and the fact that feathers were falling didn't seem as… important… as it should… have…

_Ow._

She glanced down at her arm to see a single drop of blood welling up from a pinprick, and saw Daz Bonez with his hand above the point.

"I could have handled it on my own." She pointed out. Robin had been pulling up the chakra to break the technique, if rather slowly and dizzily. Her practice sessions with Kakashi in their free time had taught her at least that much.

"You were taking too long." Crocodile told her. He'd presumably been the one to order Bonez to hurt her like that, given that he was already awake.

"And you?"

"Turned into sand and scrambled the grains." Crocodile answered, eyes narrowing. He pulled a cigar out of his pocket, lighting it and bringing it up to his lips. His eyes scanned around the slowly erupting pandemonium among the ninjas (whilst the civilians were left passed out and defenseless in the crowd).

A low thrumming noise expanded over the arena, and Robin turned to see that a strange, translucent purple barrier had been raised around the roof of the Kage box. Her eyes flicked over to Crocodile, who was instead focused on the infirmary that was built into the arena wall.

"The Kage have been isolated." She murmured.

"That brat with the sand is finally doing something interesting." Crocodile replied, not looking away from the direction that Gaara was in.

Robin nodded, seemingly to herself. "I'll see what I can do I the Kage box. You do what interests you, but please do avoid killing any Konoha shinobi or civilians. Taking out the enemy without unnecessary death would be nice as well."

Crocodile glanced at her, and then, in a way that almost made Robin think she was still stuck in a genjutsu, smirked. "I'll do what I can."

_He made a joke_. Robin mused, even as she began sprinting up towards the Kage box. _That's… unexpected_.

She had a fight to crash.

o.o.o.o.o

Hanabi's eyes snapped open, and she looked up into her sister's face.

"What—?"

"Most of the stadium is under a sleep genjutsu." Hinata murmured, her hand covering Hanabi's mouth. "Kurenai taught us how to break most genjutsu up to B-rank, and this is fairly weak. There's an invasion or something going on. Keep silent and pretend you're still asleep. You'll be safer that way."

Hanabi nodded slightly, squeezing her eyes back closed.

Hinata was the nicest, sweetest girl anyone knew… until one put her sister in danger. If someone tried to do that?

An Oto nin fell to the ground, coughing up blood and not quite sure what had been ruptured beyond the fact that it hurt more than anything he'd experienced before.

"Don't touch my sister."

Then Hinata became one of the most dangerous genin on the battlefield.

"Nicely done." The voice came from TenTen, who had just jumped up onto the rail. "But your teacher's looking for you. You're one of the few genin teams that's still fresh and not separated across the arena, and you work well together."

"Why did she send you to tell us this?" Kiba challenged, even as Lee jumped up to stand next to TenTen. Sasuke and Karin had already disappeared, running down to meet Sakura and Naruto in the center of the arena.

"I was one of the few Konoha genin left in the fighter's box, and she was there." TenTen turned to Lee. "Gai-sensei's fine on his own right now. He said you should go to the Academy since you're one of the fastest genin. Protect the kids."

"Yosh!" Lee saluted and sprinted off.

"What about us?" Ino demanded, mid-parry as she fought off a Suna nin. Chouji nodded.

"No clue. You could stay here and help me fight. My messenger job is done, now. All that's left is protecting Konoha from the invading forces."

Hinata glanced at Kiba and Shino, and then rounded on TenTen, Ino, and Chouji. "Keep my sister safe."

TenTen glanced at the little girl still slumped in her seat, eyes hidden behind her hair (but presumably activated to be aware of any attacks headed her way. The girl with the buns in her hair turned back to Hinata. "I'll do my best."

Neji may not have liked to admit it, but Hanabi and Hinata were family. And even if he held a grudge and often claimed to want to kill them, he'd be furious if she let anyone other than him hurt the girls.

"Good." With one final glance back, Hinata darted off to find Kurenai.

TenTen watched her for a second, nonchalantly catching a kunai headed for her head and sending it back at the burly Oto nin that had thrown it.

She turned to Ino and Chouji. "Hey, wanna help me with my cannon?"

o.o.o.o.o

Robin analyzed the purple at the top of the Kage box. The ANBU around the box had informed her that any living being that touched the box would be incinerated on contact.

So… getting through physically would be impossible. She could attempt to transfer herself in with the Hana Hana no Mi, but… there was a danger that, should her "sprouted" arm be incinerated, the rest of her body would follow suit.

Robin was very, very glad that Kakashi had offered to teach her the Kage Bunshin.

And also very glad that the Kage Bunshin could use the Hana Hana no Mi just as well as she could.

o.o.o.o.o

There was a pounding migraine behind Gaara's forehead, and he was all too aware of it. Temari was beside his bed, kneeling down and grasping the edge with a grip so tight that her knuckles had bled white long ago.

"Gaara, you have to get up." There was worry in her tone, and it was for him, not of. Funny, he wouldn't have noticed something that subtle a few weeks ago… "Gaara, the invasion's started, and Father is here. If he finds out that you aren't fighting… Gaara, please…"

Father… Gaara felt a flare of anger at the word… the man was no father to him…

"Gaara?"

More worry, a different kind. No longer afraid for him, but back to what he knew, the fear _of_ him.

He could feel his sand moving, sharpening. It wasn't hitting him, and… he could _push_ it away from Temari.

She was worrying for him. She could live a little longer.

"Gaara, you have to wake up, you have to wake up _now_." Temari was shaking him, and then she wasn't, she was g—

"_Get out!_"

Gaara's eyes snapped open, the remaining poison in his system filtering out completely in a matter of seconds. A warmth in his chest, Shukaku's chakra (_Mother…_), flared for a second to clear his system fully, and then subsided as the seal pressed it back once more, its job done.

He sat up and turned to the door, seeing that Temari had pushed back and more than likely killed several Konoha shinobi.

"What are you doing?"

_Why are you protecting this room?_

"What do you mean?" Temari demanded, her body halfway out the door as she checked for more enemies. "They're attacking me; they're attacking you; you weren't moving, and I'm not abandoning you."

"Why?"

Temari bit back a groan. "Because you're my brother, now let's _go._ Now isn't the time for this conversation, because the invasion is going on, and _father will notice if we aren't there_."

"…Fine."

Gaara missed the look of relief on Temari's face as it processed that her hasty comment hadn't prompted Gaara to try to kill her.

She didn't want to hurt Konoha.

She didn't want to hurt the village that had jumpstarted the slowly mending relationship with her brother.

She didn't want to hurt the ones that had helped her and her brothers so much.

She didn't.

But the Kazekage had ordered it, _father_ had ordered it, and the Kazekage's will was that of the village.

She had no choice.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto and Sakura were back-to-back in the arena, trying to cover for each other as various Oto nin attacked. The Suna shinobi didn't seem as concerned with getting to them, or concerned at all, since they were just genin. The Oto shinobi, on the other hand, seemed _very_ concerned with killing Naruto.

Orochimaru probably didn't care one way or the other about the law banning people from telling anyone about the Kyuubi. With all the other ones he'd broken, that law probably meant less than nothing to him.

So… Oto wanted to kill him as soon as possible to prevent the Kyuubi from becoming a deciding player in the battle.

"Oi, idiot, watch your back."

Naruto squawked and turned around, noticing that, oh, Sasuke had just kept some guy from stabbing him. Well, that was nice of Sasuke, but why hadn't Sakura—ah, Sakura was in the middle of a different fight.

"As soon as this mess is over, I'm helping you with your sensor skills." Karin muttered, slinking in behind Sasuke (Naruto hadn't noticed her, but Karin was good at hiding like that). "They're disgraceful."

"I'm not that bad!" Naruto argued, even though he knew that, really, he could have been better.

"You're an Uzumaki. You shouldn't be bad at all." Karin retorted, even as she dodged an Oto nin, skillfully weaving around a near impossible number of projectiles that had been thrown her way. "Unless you happen to be a one-in-a-million anomaly in that regard, even the slightest bit of practice with sensing should have shown _some_ potential."

"Uh… I don't think anyone ever tried that with me." Naruto punched a man in the ribs, feeling a few of them break under his knuckles. "And I was always more interested in big jutsu than stuff like that."

Karin glared at him for barely a second, dodging an attack without even seeing it (wow, okay, so sensing could be cool if it meant he could do awesome jutsu without even _looking_ at someone), and then turned back to her fight. "Sensing may not be a flashy offensive technique, but it's still useful, _cousin dear_."

Naruto winced. "Uh… okay. I'll work on it later?"

"Good."

That's when the side of the arena exploded.

"Art is a bang, un!"

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Yeesh, the review count's been dropping the IQ of someone reading Fifty Shades of Grey. You guys alive out there?**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	38. Someone Up There REALLY Hates Medics

TenTen snapped her hand out to the side, a kunai slipping out of her fingers and into the throat of the Oto nin that had been half a second from ambushing her.

"Left, twenty meters!" Ino called. She and Hanabi were back to back, using eyes and sensor skills alike to make sure things were kept clear for Chouji and TenTen, sending warning well ahead of time for most of the attacks.

"You take care of it." TenTen ordered. As the oldest genin there (and, god, Hanabi was still an Academy student, wasn't she?), she had been given ad hoc leadership of the rest of the group, and taken it in stride. "Akamichi, you're helping me."

Chouji nodded, letting go of his technique and shrinking back down to normal size. "What do you need me to do?"

TenTen didn't answer immediately, too busy throwing a shuriken directly into the eyes of an attacking shinobi (her aim was impossibly accurate, really). She pulled out a scroll immediately afterwards, swiping a bloody thumb across and jumping out of the way to avoid the large metal weapon (and the cart it was on) that fell heavily to the ground, right on top of the scroll. Another scroll gave way to a half-dozen large iron balls, about the size of someone's head.

"You'll help me out with loading the cannon and moving it when necessary. I want to see if we can take care of those giant snakes at the north end." TenTen said, glancing once more at Ino and Hanabi. "You two get over here! It's safer in a group."

The girls scrambled over, and Ino grumbled to herself. "I kind of wish Shikamaru was here."

"The Nara guy that was fighting?" Hanabi asked, eyes still active. The strain was starting to get to her, but it was a matter of life or death, and she wasn't ready to die yet.

"Me and Chouji's teammate. We work well as a group, so it would have been good for all three of us to be together right now." Ino's eyes flickered over to a large Oto nin that was currently mowing down Konoha nin several dozen yards away. Large, but slow. "You'll have to do for now. Help guard my body. Chouji! Plan _Hi-shin_!"

"But Shika's not here!"

"Hanabi and TenTen can take care of his parts if necessary." Ino snapped back, putting her hands up and in the necessary sign. "Shintenshin no Jutsu!"

Hanabi stiffened as Ino's body flopped down, just barely moving in time to make sure that the older girl's head landed somewhere other than the ground, specifically Hanabi's hands. She pulled Ino's head onto her lap and looked over at the large Oto nin that Ino had been aiming at. The man had begun to attack Suna and Oto shinobi, if nowhere near as efficiently as before. She heard Chouji and TenTen fumbling around behind her, the scraping of metal especially loud as her back was resting just against the cart on which the cannon lay.

"Plug your ears with chakra. Cover Ino's. Get away from the cart. Ready? Fire!" TenTen yelled, and Hanabi eeped, clapping her hands over Ino's ears and making sure that her own were safe as an explosion happened just behind her. After a full second, she unplugged her ears, hearing TenTen whooping loudly. "Score!"

"One of the snakes is down." Chouji informed Hanabi, even as his arm grew larger, larger than her entire body, and slammed into a shinobi that had been attempting to ambush them after the attack, recognizing the danger of the new weapon. Oh. She'd let her Byakugan turn off. That was probably a good thing; she didn't have as much chakra as the people around her, being only seven, and it had been draining her rather quickly.

"Looks like someone else is taking care of the other snakes. There are some toads there now." TenTen shifted her attention to the large purple cube atop the Kage's box. "There aren't many other big targets, so let's see if we can get rid of that thing."

"That sounds like a goo—" Chouji was cut off as the part of the arena directly above and behind them blew up, an unintelligible shout echoing from above.

Hanabi squealed, not caring for how embarrassing it was, and bent forward to make sure Ino's body wasn't too badly damaged. It helped that the position protected Hanabi herself as well.

Chouji had been back next to them, landing heavily across Ino's legs, and was now groaning as he slowly got back to his feet. "What was that?"

TenTen grunted, lurching to her feet and leaning against the cannon with a kunai in one hand. "You mean other than the obvious? No clue."

"Found them!" An Oto nin yelled from far to the side, in an area the blast hadn't affected. Even now, there were more explosions going off around the village though most seemed to be occurring right in the arena. "Unconscious blonde chit with no visible injuries and an Akimichi nearby!"

"No Nara?"

"No, but it's good enough!" The man jumped down closer, and every move he made showed that he was clearly in another league than the cannon fodder (oh, that saying made so much sense now… how had it come to be here in their own world, though?) they had fought 'til now. "We found the Yamanaka that took out Genji-san and turned him against us."

TenTen cursed quietly under her breath, and Hanabi pressed herself closer to the cannon, though she knew it probably wouldn't do much good. "Akimichi…"

"I'll need help." Chouji muttered. "Without Shika here, and with Ino unconscious, my attacks are a lot harder to pull off. I can still do some stuff, but…"

"Good enough." TenTen's hands drifted down to her belt, right where her scrolls were stored. Her eyes were still trained on the enemy, who was watching them with calm, mocking amusement, and her voice was still soft enough to not carry. "Keep him occupied for ten seconds, then clear out."

"Roger." Chouji flashed through a few handsigns. "Baika no Jutsu!"

Hanabi hadn't received any orders (not that she'd expected them), but she felt that it would be alright for her to drag Ino and herself around to the other side of the cannon, away from where the more difficult battle was about to take place. Even before Chouji made his way into the fight, she had begun to move.

She'd just barely made it to the other side (seven seconds into TenTen's time limit, in fact), when she heard an anguished scream. An anguished scream from a familiar voice, in fact.

"Byakugan," she whispered, voice trembling. Ino lay unmoving in her lap, mind maybe miles away by now. She had to come back soon.

Chouji's left arm was gone, cut messily across the bone in the upper arm. He was backpedalling away from the Oto nin (a Jounin, he had to be, for Chouji to last not even ten seconds, though the shinobi he had been talking to was unconscious), back towards the cannon, and TenTen was hurrying, but—

"Soushouryuu!" TenTen yelled, leaping into the air with a pair of scrolls coming up and twisting around her. With unerring accuracy, she plucked the weapons out of the air as the appeared from the scrolls and hurled them at the Oto nin.

The Oto nin did not have any Fuuton techniques.

The Oto nin was not wearing much armor.

The Oto nin could not avoid everything.

The Oto nin did not survive.

Hanabi's attention was focused on Chouji's arm. Her hands twitched in her lap, Byakugan turning off immediately as her mind flew back to lessons with Kabuto. If it was a clean cut, the arteries would curl back in on themselves to prevent excess blood loss, but the person would still lose consciousness quickly. For Chouji, who was still just a young teen, the blacking-out would happen earlier, and besides, the cut _wasn't_ clean. The bleeding could be halted by cauterizing the wound, but that would ruin chances of reattaching the arm with chakra pathways intact. The bleeding and pathways could both be halted with medical ninjutsu, but that was high-level stuff. There was still a chance that the arm could be saved by an experienced medic nin, but there wasn't anyone around. There weren't even _normal_ Konoha nin that could help them out with anything right now, or this wouldn't have happened in the first place.

A loud roar echoed behind her, unnoticed.

TenTen was dragging Chouji back, even as the boy was quickly losing consciousness. His arm was tucked under hers, and her face was pale with worry.

"I've never been any good at medical techniques. I tried, a lot, but I can't." TenTen was choking the words out. "I can't just… oh kami, this is my fault."

"I… I can try." Hanabi bit her lip, heart pounding wildly in her chest. "I'm not bad at it. This is… this is really bad, but it's a normal wound, just a cut, even if it's messy, so… I can try?"

"It's better than nothing." TenTen grit her teeth, breath escaping in sharp gasps. Chouji was completely unconscious, now. "Don't hurt yourself doing this, though. Your sister would never forgive me."

"I know my limits." Hanabi tried to grin, though it came out as a grimace.

She didn't.

Fifteen minutes into her first time as a field medic, unofficial as it was, Hyuuga Hanabi lost consciousness and entered a coma as chakra exhaustion overtook her during the healing of Akimichi Chouji's arm. The arm would be saved, but the chakra pathways would not. Hyuuga Hanabi would not wake up for another three weeks. Five minutes later, Yamanaka Ino would wake up to find the situation that had unfolded while she was gone, and attempt to aid TenTen in protecting the incapacitated comrades. She would escape unscathed, as would TenTen, but the guilt would stay with them for a long time afterwards.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin took a deep breath as her clone successfully bloomed an arm inside the shield. With the exhale, she dissolved the clone and steadied herself, taking another deep breath and blooming her entire body inside the shield, hidden in one of the branches. That were there. She stayed quiet, very quiet, her eyes focused on the people inside. It was odd, really. There should have been someone putting the shield up, shouldn't there have been? The ANBU would have killed them had they been outside, and Sarutobi likely hadn't noticed them if they were in here.

Robin doubted she could help much with the fight that was going on below her. It was in a league beyond her, loathe as she was to admit it. She had an eighty-one million beli bounty on her head, though she felt that it would have raised to at least a hundred by this point had the marines known of her progress. The men below her… they were beyond that level. At Luffy's perhaps. They would be able to hold their own against all but the most dangerous pirates and marines alive, back home. All but the Yonkou and the Admirals, and perhaps several of the Shichibukai.

Perhaps she should have brought Crocodile along.

Though that roar she'd just heard implied otherwise...

While she could not fight the men below her, she could find the ones creating the shield. After all, if she could bloom herself through _this_ shield, she could get through whatever shield was hiding the ones that had put it up in the first place.

Eyes grew out of the trees at all four corners, searching, searching, searching.

o.o.o.o.o

Kinishi took a shallow, rattling breath, blood seeping into her lungs, and her eyes wide. Through her chest was a sword.

Slowly, she turned around to see the crouched form of her current employer, and between them, the puppet that had stabbed her.

"You seek to kill me?" She coughed. "I should have known."

"You did your job well." Sasori could admit that much. "I'll make it quick."

"You won't make it happen at all." Kinishi yanked herself from the sword, her chest already glowing gold as the wound healed itself. "Medics rarely make it to Jounin anywhere. You know that. I know that. Everyone knows that. So what makes you think that killing one of the few that _did_ would be easy?"

"The fact that I've done it before, and will do it again." Sasori's tail (or the tail of whichever puppet he inhabited) lashed through the air. "Don't worry, you'll be dead before long, and then I can collect the specimens I came for, yourself included."

"No." Kinishi growled. "You won't."

"Need some help?"

Both Kinishi and Sasori's heads snapped to the side. A lazy eye above a mask and an orange book stared back, silver hair defying gravity as it always did. Kakashi raised a hand. "Yo."

"Hatake." Kinishi shifted her weight, buying time as her chest knit itself back together. "Why are you offering?"

"I know what those cloaks mean, for one thing. And even if you did work for him, he literally just stabbed you in the back. I have a bigger reason to hate him than to hate you, and besides, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?" Kakashi's eye crinkled in a small, fake smile.

"Hatake Kakashi. Son of the White Fang… your father was the one that killed my parents." Sasori's voice was deceptively calm. "It's time I've returned the favor."

Ah. A grudge. Just what Kakashi was looking for.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Trust me, the first scene is**_** extremely important**_**. Just… trust me, okay?**

**The reason Robin's had so little time in the chapters recently is because I'm showing the **_**effects**_** of her presence, both good and bad. Right now? Right now, the effects are mostly bad.**

**Though I do so enjoy having Kakashi and Sasori in a battle. Such a wasted opportunity in canon, just having it as a one-off joke with Chiyo.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**

**P.S.**

I'm hosting a panel on fanfiction at a convention. Where?

The Baruch Anime Asylum Convention!

This is a _free_ anime convention being hosted in the middle of New York City, so if you live in or near the area and are free on Friday, April 25th, you should come!

There is a link to my deviantArt page on my FFnet profile, and the first journal there has a link that will show you where to get tickets, as well as information on contests, prizes, and more.

Hurry, because there are less than eighty normal tickets left, and cosplay entry tickets are running out, though if they do run out, contact me directly.


	39. Stifled Breaths

Robin was proactive, if nothing else. She wasn't the highest level battler around (not by a long shot, if the actions of the S-class shinobi in the Kage box were any indication), but she was smart and she had powers that were nigh unheard of, so the power of surprise was on her side.

It took two minutes and thirty seven seconds to find the first of the four shinobi holding up the shield, as they had hidden themselves following the ANBU's attacks.

He was barely more than a child. A child with six arms, granted, but a child nonetheless.

Robin frowned. She didn't want to kill him, not someone this young that had, in all likelihood, been brainwashed and manipulated into serving Orochimaru, rather than choosing to do so of his own free will.

So how to incapacitate him?

As if taunting her, wisps of her conversation with Kakashi months earlier drifted by in her mind.

_People have hollow lungs and stomachs. Would you be able to take advantage of that in a surprise attack if…?_

Robin tilted her head. Perhaps, if she were only to use a few fingers, use them to block of his trachea…

She could incapacitate him without killing.

It would be best to use a shadow clone, though. There was no real advantage to using her actually body in such a situation. If, for instance, the boy was capable of easily breathing poisonous or acidic substances (something she had, on occasion, seen Anko or Kurenai do), then it would really be best that the damage was not transferred back to her own hands.

She formed the clone, steadying herself against a nearby tree soon afterwards, and sighed as she watched the young boy below her begin fidgeting, trying his hardest not to claw at his throat.

Too young for this. Many of the fighters were.

The boy's face colored, and then his whole body shuddered as he spat something out in an attempt to force out the blockage, golden and viscous, but it didn't help. The obstruction was at the trachea, not the esophagus, which was where the sticky gel had passed through on its way out.

The boy finally gave up on trying to hold the barrier up, and began trying to give himself the Heimlich maneuver.

He was unsuccessful, and unconsciousness claimed him fifteen seconds later.

The whole process took four minutes.

On to the next one.

o.o.o.o.o

Orochimaru was more than aware of the fact that the barrier was weakening. He would have been a poor excuse for an S-rank if he couldn't.

However, he could do nothing to help fix the situation beyond attempting to hurry the battle up. He had some enormously powerful Edo Tensei zombies on his side, but his old teacher was keeping up better than expected. Of course, Orochimaru had _contingency plans_ and such, but he didn't want to use them, not now.

Sure, this was an important battle in more ways than one, but there would inevitably be larger, more dangerous ones down the road. He had no illusions regarding the fact that Akatsuki _would_ hunt him down once they didn't have their arms full with other things, and Sasori's presence (along with the blonde brat that had replaced Orochimaru as the puppet master's partner) had him on edge even more than he was with just the invasion to think about.

It was a problem.

But first, he had to kill Hiruzen.

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi wasn't very sure what it was that he'd been expecting when he agreed to fight with Kinishi against Sasori. There were a few things he had thought were likely to be true, such as her supposed healing abilities, the genjutsu that often went along with healing, and possibly a kekkei genkai, along with a few that he thought were unlikely to crop up, such as taijutsu skills or particularly strong ninjutsu.

The taijutsu, he soon saw, was something that he was right about. Kinishi could dodge well enough, but there was difficulty in her movements whenever one of the puppets dove in for close-range combat. No genjutsu had made themselves known yet, though, nor had any ninjutsu.

Kakashi himself was doing his best to fight Sasori himself, or whatever the hell it was that was emitting the nukenin's voice.

"It seems that you fail to live up to your reputation, Hatake." Sasori growled, moving back slightly in a short pause in the fighting. "I've heard so many great things about you, and yet you struggle to keep up with me even in this state."

"Maa, maa… It's been a while since I've needed to fight much, you know." He rolled his shoulders. "Don't forget that I'm not fighting at full yet either, though."

Sasori's tail lashed through the air like an irritated cat's as he watched Kakashi tap the forehead protector over his eye.

"…I see." The veil over the lower half of Sasori's face fluttered upwards to reveal an inhuman mien, presumably made of wood, which opened to show a senbon shooter that activated almost immediately.

Kakashi had to do some fancy acrobatics to avoid those.

"Oi, Kinishi-san? How are you doing?" He asked the woman as she landed next to him, breathing heavily. He noted with interest that there was a naginata in her hands, but didn't comment.

"I'd be better if they were made out of actual flesh. Puppets aren't really something I'm suited to fighting." She grit her teeth as several gashes across her arms began to glow with healing chakra. "You?"

"Better than you're doing, I think, but still not very well. He _is_ an S-Rank." Kakashi shifted his posture a little, one hand going behind his back to grab a kunai.

"If the rest of my team hurried up and actually arrived…" Kinishi scoffed, eyes roving the crowd. "Torame, at least, should be here by now. Unless he got caught up in something else…"

"Your genin students would be able to help?" Kakashi was doubtful, though he knew the statement would be false in one of two ways: either the students couldn't help, or they weren't really genin.

"They're all Jounin level spies, Hatake." Kinishi spat out, anxious and ill at ease. Sasori hadn't attacked again yet, seeming content with waiting for them to finish speaking, gathering information for his own purposes along the way. "You, of all people, should have been able to tell that something was suspicious."

"I could." Kakashi shrugged, using the movement to roll his shoulders and loosen up a bit more before fighting again. "But I didn't point it out. We have ANBU for that."

"Of course you do." Kinishi muttered. "I see Torame. He looks like he's going to engage with one of the remaining snakes and some Oto nin."

"Mm." Kakashi had already sought out his own team, and didn't like what he saw. "Tell me, either of your remaining 'students' have any experience with fighting S-rank explosives users?"

"They might." Kinishi closed her eyes, spinning the Naginata in her hands slowly.

"Great, because the other Akatsuki member seems to be attacking my team and the stadium at large." Kakashi eye-smiled at Kinishi, though his entire body remained on high alert in case Sasori decided to finally attack.

"Hm." Kinishi smirked, and when she opened her eyes, they seemed covered in a golden sheen, shining, with no difference between the pupil, iris, or sclera; her eyes were more uniform than even a byakugan. "I think I may be able to spare one. Two, if Torame decides to show up."

"You trust in his abilities?"

"He keeps Daiya focused." Kinishi grinned at him, more emotional and _savage_ than he'd seen the woman thus far. "Well, ready for a fight that very well may lead to our deaths?"

"…Maa, I suppose."

o.o.o.o.o

"You should go."

Zabuza twitched in his spot, but didn't stand. His knuckles were white where he gripped Kubikiribouchou's handle, the blade resting across his lap.

"I'm not going to leave you here unprotected, Haku." He grumbled. "You're still not back up to full fighting capacity, and if someone gets here and—"

"The hospital is one of the most heavily protected places in the village." Haku pointed out, not unkindly. "I'll be fine."

"Orochimaru's trying to get you for your Kekkei Genkai, though. The other patients here aren't like that." Zabuza growled. "There are probably people specifically ordered to kidnap you."

Haku sighed. "Yes, which is why the Hokage has a full team of ANBU specifically assigned to this part of the floor. The part of the floor with shinobi and kekkei genkai users. The heavily guarded one. This floor that I'm on right now."

"Haku…"

"You'll get to vent your frustrations, kill some of Orochimaru's followers, and curry favor with the village." Haku tempted. "You can even stick to this part of the village and defend the hospital."

"…Fine."

Haku smiled as Zabuza heaved himself to his feet and threw himself out the window.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: This chapter was a nightmare to write, and after my computer died halfway through writing the chapter (water damage, so I don't get a laptop again until I can scrounge up the money), I was set back by a bunch and dealing with writer's block.**

**HUGE thanks to Buddhahobo. Your reviews were the main driving force for me to get ANYTHING done this chapter, even if not much was accomplished in the end.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	40. The Beginning of the End

Naruto woke up to the sound of beeping.

Well, that was annoying.

"Naruto?"

He winced, as even the whisper was strong enough to make his head hurt, but opened his eyes nonetheless. Granted, he closed them again a second later because things were just way too bright, but even those little signs were enough to get Sakura's attention.

"Naruto!"

"I'd suggest you quiet down a bit, Sakura-chan." Oh, hey, that was Kakashi-sensei. That was cool.

"Sorry." Sakura whispered, much quieter.

"…we win?" Naruto whispered, incapable of doing much more.

"For a certain value of win." Kakashi-sensei explained. "We lost a lot of people, but we drove Oto out and Suna surrendered, so we came out better than they did, at the least."

"…anyone…" His voice failed him, incapable of continuing, but Kakashi got the picture.

"Chouji lost an arm, though I've heard rumors that they managed to sew it back on. Sasuke's in the next room, still unconscious, and you've got burns over most of your body. Sakura—"

"I've got a broken leg and some injuries on my torso that are going to scar, but that's the worst of it. One of those mercenary kids got involved before that guy could do anything more. The, uh… the girl with the scars and the Raiton techniques."

Kakashi took over again. "Shikamaru's got two broken fingers. Ino's fine, and so is TenTen, but they're both in counseling for survivor's guilt. Team Eight is mostly fine, though Shino lost a good portion of his hives and Hinata seems to have gone into a depression after finding out that her sister landed herself in a coma trying to heal Chouji. Lee and Neji are fine, mostly just concerned about their teammate and a few other people. Haku wasn't touched, and Zabuza only got a few small cuts and a bit of poisoning that he was apparently immune to anyway. Robin's currently helping guard some prisoners, and I think that's everyone."

"…Karin?"

"Ah, right. Sakura, would you like to take this one?"

"She didn't get hit by a single weapon the whole invasion, and her only injuries were from a bomb that went off nearby when she was trying to pull you away from the Akatsuki guy's line of attack."

Naruto remembered that.

"Um… she's in Sasuke's room now. Said that she didn't need to worry about you, because you're an Uzumaki, and Uzumaki don't die that easily. Especially if they have the Kyuubi."

"Go back to sleep, Naruto." Kakashi patted his head. "Your cousin's annoying, but she's also right. Get some rest, and you'll be fine in a few days."

"But…" Naruto had to breathe far too often. "Jii-san?"

"He lost a lot of blood and one of his arms, but he's alive and well otherwise. Go to sleep, Naruto."

Naruto fell asleep.

o.o.o.o.o

Robin tilted her head as she heard footsteps approaching from behind. They were heavy, very heavy, and told her that the person approaching was both very large and not a ninja.

She didn't need the footsteps to know who was coming.

"Crocodile." She muttered, though she never took her eyes off of the one-way window in front of her; she was watching prisoners, and as dangerous as the prisoners were, she felt uncomfortable looking away. "You want something?"

"A trip back to our world would be nice." The man came to a stop right next to her, though he didn't lean against the 'console' the way she did, but stayed upright with his arms crossed over his chest instead. "I got what I came for."

"So Gaara…?"

"Interesting, but he's too young and unhinged to entertain me for more than a few days, and if my sources are correct, he is returning to his home in a half-week's time. I prefer war to teaching, and if I'm going to be doing any conquering…"

"It'll be our world, not this one." Robin smiled, though the expression was empty. "I'll see about sending you home tomorrow."

"Be sure that you do."

o.o.o.o.o

"I'm worried about Hinata." Kurenai muttered into her drink, swishing it around in the glass with a mercurial expression on her face. "Kiba and Shino are okay, but with what happened to Hanabi, I'm just… I'm afraid she's going to go somewhere I can't follow."

"I feel you." Asuma was leaning against the counter, cigarette in his fingers, unlit. "Ino's skinnier than I've seen her, and I don't think she's been sleeping at all. She's training harder than ever before, but… not in a good way. Chouji's still in physical therapy as it is, and Shikamaru's been holed up kami-knows-where for days, and I don't know what he's been doing, but he asked me about what kinds of training people needed before applying for T&I or ANBU yesterday, and…" He trailed off, sighed, and took a swig of his drink.

"I fear that TenTen is in much the same way as your young Yamanaka Ino." Gai admitted. "The guilt over the injuries she allowed to befall to her peers and the young Hyuuga weighs on her far heavier than any of the weights I've seen her carry. Neji has been having his own troubles with the family as well."

"Sasuke's still in a coma." Kakashi offered, because even though his students were injured, none of them were suffering emotionally the way the rest of the Rookies, and Gai's team, seemed to be. Of course, Kakashi had seen his own little pocket of angrily disturbing during the invasion…

"You're hiding something." Kurenai pointed out, ever the keen eyes, even with the low lighting and the mask that hid his features.

Kakashi thought it over for a second. "You remember that mercenary girl? The redhead?"

"You mean the fake genin that went on that rant during the first exam and fought Neji in the Prelims?" Asuma asked carefully.

"Yes."

"Then yes, I do remember."

"Same."

"Indeed."

"I watched her die." Kakashi held his glass up to the light, mindlessly watching some little bubbles flutter around in the amber liquid. "And yeah, I've watched a lot of people die, but her teacher was… she brushed it off. Said that it was the girl's own fault that she'd gotten hit, and that she'd have a lot of fun in hell before she came back to terrorize her team some more. Didn't even try to heal her, and this was a medic Jounin. Her teammate, the boy, the _boyfriend_ with the Katon? He didn't even seem to notice."

Kurenai winced. "Are you sure the girl's dead? If there was any chance of her coming back, then it may have just been that they were used to her getting injured."

"You don't get up from having a sword shoved through your eye and out the back of your head." Kakashi wasn't… _bitter_, really, because he hadn't known anyone involved well enough, but the principle of it was enough.

Kurenai swore softly. "That's… bad."

"Yeah."

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto was up within a few days, and Sasuke was moved to the coma ward, just across from Hyuuga Hanabi, one of the most secure areas in the hospital. It was actually Haku's old room, as the Yuki had moved out once the hospital had started filling up after the invasion, and was now living with Zabuza. By all accounts, it was a good move, and people felt secure enough to send one Uzumaki Naruto out on a mission with Jiraiya of the Sannin to bring back Senju Tsunade for the seat of Hokage.

This was, of course, before the incident that lead to the death of Hyuuga Hanabi.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I will only be posting another two or three chapters.**

**EDIT: Thank you to everyone who helped me with getting back a copy of Chapter 19: kyuuo, Counting Sinful Stars, and XAvAX.  
><strong>

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


End file.
